Earlier
today a fired up Hewitt beat Taylor Dent in four sets 6-4 6-4 6-7 (7-9) 6-3 and
now faces giant-killing 26th seed Feliciano Lopez in the
quarter-finals, after the 23-year-old Spaniard claimed the scalp of 10th
seed Mario Ancic (6-4 6-4 6-2).

It
was something of a return to form for Hewitt who was given a warning
for verbal abuse of a linesperson in the sixth game of the second set on the
back of the umpire making a late overrule. He also urged another linesperson to “wake up.” But Dent wasn’t to be intimidated
by his prickly opponent and let the umpire know that Hewitt’s antics shouldn’t intimidate him either.

“I
don’t know if the situation got to him, if he’s intimidated by Hewitt or
whatever,” Dent said post-game. “His personality is indicative to doing that. He’s fired up,
he’s yelling. That’s intimidating, whether that works for him or against him.”

In his own defence, Hewitt claimed to be concerned by the increased incidence of overrules this
year at Wimbledon, saying they erode players’
confidence in the officials.