BBC SPORT | Tennis | Below-par Hewitt defeated

Friday's results

World number one Lleyton Hewitt crashed out of the Japan Open after a straight sets defeat to Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan.

Srichaphan, the eighth seed, got the better of Hewitt 6-4 6-3 to reach the last four.

He overwhelmed the Wimbledon champion with aces and a stream of baseline winners.

I had nothing to lose

Paradorn Srichaphan

Hewitt, who had struggled in the previous round against Nicolas Masau of Chile, admitted he was undone by numerous unforced errors.

"He played well, but I didn't play my best tennis," said Hewitt.

"I didn't feel fresh from the start. His powerful play has caused some upsets for big guys this year."

The result is just the latest impressive effort from Srichaphan, who has stormed up the rankings since beating Andre Agassi at Wimbledon in June.

It is the first time he has beaten the world number one in three meetings, although he held four match points when they met in February at San Jose.

"I had nothing to lose, he's number one in the world," said Srichaphan.

"If I lost then that's OK, but I was always going to play my game.

Magnus Norman out-played his fellow Swede Magnus Larsson
Norman is back after a hip operation last year
"The last two times I was a little shaky on important points against Hewitt.

"I learned a lot from the last times about what I'm going to do when the situation gets close or if I'm up a break."

Hewitt's defeat and a number of other surprise results mean that Srichaphan is now the only seeded player left in the tournament.

Swedish qualifier Magnus Norman also advanced to the semi-finals after showing glimpses of his past form.

The former world number two fired 11 aces at compatriot Magnus Larsson to defeat him 7-6 7-5.

Norman has been dogged by a hip injury which has seen him slide to 210 in the world rankings.

"It's been a long time, tougher than I had expected it to be to come back from injury," the Swede said.

"But now, I've put that all behind me and looking forward to playing some good tennis."

Japan Open results:

Men's quarter-finals:
Magnus Norman (Swe) bt Magnus Larsson (Swe) 7-6 (7/5) 7-5
(8) Paradorn Srichaphan (Tha) bt (1) Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) 6-4 6-3
Kenneth Carlsen (Den) bt Anthony Dupuis (Fra) 6-3 6-2
Vincent Spadea (USA) bt Feliciano Lopez (Spa) 6-3 6-0

Women's quarter-finals:
Sarah Taylor (USA) bt Yuka Yoshida (Jpn) 6-4 6-2
Jill Craybas (USA) bt (8) Jelena Kostanic (Cro) 6-2 6-1
Silvija Talaja (Cro) bt (1) Ai Sugiyama (Jpn) 3-6, 7-6 (7/5) 6-3
(2) Tamarine Tanasugarn (Tha) bt Alicia Molik (Aus) 6-4 1-6 6-1


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