Lleyton Hewitt had a one-set lead yesterday when his opponent, veteran South African Wayne Ferreira, smashed an overhead at him. Hewitt got his racket on it and sent back a floater, and Ferreira promptly hit another slam, this one out of the reach of any player on the planet.

But Hewitt started after it just the same, and when he had to stop short to avoid crashing into a slow-moving linesman, he got in the gentleman’s face as if he had just cost Hewitt a crucial point in a tiebreak of a U.S. Open semifinal. After a few choice words, Hewitt walked back to his chair with a scowl on his face.

It was a small moment in the midst of a blowout, but one that gets to the heart of Hewitt, who will grind and hustle and scream “Come on!” from his first swing till his last. While players like Andy Roddick and Roger Federer overwhelm their opponents, Hewitt makes them work and gasp for air. Then, he smothers them. Against Ferreira, the 23-year-old Australian needed just over an hour and a half to score a 6-1, 7-5, 6-4 win.

“Believe me, the guy has so much,” said Marat Safin the other day, explaining why Hewitt should not be considered a limited player who overachieved when he became the youngest player ever to reach the no. 1 ranking three years ago. “He has huge balls and he [is] so great physically that it’s a joke. I mean, whenever it comes to the really, like, important point in a match, he gives the best passing shot of the year probably.”

Hewitt hit one of those yesterday against Ferreira, who had approached the net on a low slice backhand. Ferreira covered the line, but Hewitt, running at full speed, smacked a forehand winner right by him. He had turned defense into offense, and later he won a point with spectacular defense alone, chasing a lob to the back wall and flip ping it over his head and back at Ferreira. As is often the case with Hewitt, an improbable return soon led to a mistake by his opponent.

“He just makes the impossible possible,” Safin said. “Like when you go to the net – he’s not scared.”

Ferreira, 32, who will retire this year after playing in a record 56th consecutive Grand Slam, said Hewitt had returned to top form since they last met in Los Angeles a year ago, a match that Ferreira won in three sets.

“He served very, very well, which is something he’s been struggling with for a while,” Ferreira said. “I think it’s more of a confidence problem that he had that he’s got back now.”

Hewitt has a lot to be confident about. He won 10 straight matches over two tournaments coming into the Open, and he wasn’t pressed in many of them. He couldn’t have asked for a better draw here, either. The highest ranked player in Hewitt’s quarter is no. 8 seed David Nalbandian, a semifinalist at last year’s Open who has struggled with injuries this season.

Four other seeded players in Hewitt’s quarter – Fernando Gonzalez (14), Juan Ignacio Chela (17), Gustavo Kuerten (20), and Jonas Bjorkman (32) – lost yesterday. Perhaps the biggest obstacle between Hewitt and a semifinal against Andy Roddick is the resurgent, and finally healthy, Tommy Haas of Germany, who struggled to win yesterday in five sets. Hewitt could also face no. 12 seed Sebastien Grosjean of France.

Hewitt said yesterday that he’s playing his best tennis since he won the U.S. Open in 2001 and Wimbledon in 2002, if not his best ever. Though some have questioned whether he played too much prior to this tournament, he does not seem near exhaustion. More of a concern, perhaps, is that only two of his last 10 victories came against players ranked higher than 50.Things could turn around in a hurry once he is tested.

As Hewitt walked off the court yesterday, Gonzalez, a Chilean who won a bronze medal at the Olympics, had just mustered enough energy to win the third set tiebreak against 20-year-old Swede Robin Soderling. Down two sets to one, Gonzalez slumped in his chair as his fans – dressed in the red of Chile and waving flags – stomped in the stands of Court 10 and sang out, “Ole, ole,ole,ole! Chile, Chile!” Their energy, alas, could not save Gonzalez from defeat, 6-4, 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 6-1.

Earlier in the day, Australian Mark Philippoussis retired with spasms near his left hip in the fifth set against Russian Nikolay Davydenko, trailing 1-6, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6, 4-1. Philippoussis, 27, was ranked ninth in the world at the end of last year, but he has had repeated knee problems and has fallen to 57 after a disappointing season.

“It’s pretty much the worst year of my tennis career, by far,” he said. “I feel like I just want to start all over again.”

In the first set of Philippoussis’s match at Louis Armstrong Stadium, veteran chair umpire Norm Chryst delivered the best quote of the day: “Sir at the top of the stadium, can you turn off your cell phone, please.” He was speaking to a fan seated in the top row, directly behind him. The crowd cheered, and the man received a visit from two security guards. He then left, of his own accord, a game later.