Henman fails to break Hewitt hoodoo

Tim Henman last night slumped to his eighth consecutive defeat to Lleyton Hewitt in the Masters Series event in Cincinnati.

Hewitt brushed aside the British number one 6-1 6-4 to move into the quarter-finals and looks in superb form ahead of the US Open later this month.

Henman has never beaten his Australian rival and never remotely looked like ending that depressing sequence as he won just four points in the opening five games of the first set, twice losing his serve as Hewitt came out firing on all cylinders.

The British number one was furious with a bad line call which contributed to the second service break, but in truth he was a distant second best against the former world number one.

He finally held serve to win his first game of the match but Hewitt served out to take one of the most one-sided sets of tennis 6-1.

It looked like being at least a mercifully short ordeal for Henman when he went 0-40 down on his serve in the first game of the second set, but the 29-year-old dug deep to edge in front for the first time in the match.

The fifth seed saved two more in the fifth game but Hewitt eventually found a way through to break for what proved a decisive lead.