Australia brush Ecuador aside

Hewitt: Quickly dashed Ecuador's hopes

Australia bt Ecuador 4-1

Australia will face Brazil in the Davis Cup quarter-finals after completing a comprehensive 4-1 win over Ecuador.

Teenager Lleyton Hewitt clinched victory when he beat Nicolas Lapentti 6-2, 6-1, 6-1 in just 82 minutes in the first match of the reverse singles.

Patrick Rafter then beat Lapentti's younger brother Giovanni 6-3, 6-1 in a match reduced to three sets because the tie was over as a contest.

Personally, I don't think it can get any worse than Spain, but a few people have mentioned it could be a couple of times worse

  Hewitt on Brazil clash

The Lapentti brothers lost the opening two singles rubbers on Friday, but gave Ecuador hope of an upset when they beat Todd Woodbridge and Wayne Arthurs in a classic five-set doubles match.

However, Hewitt quickly blew away such hopes when he hammered Nicolas Lapentti to give Australia an unassailable 3-1 lead.

He ran away with his opening set in 30 minutes after breaking service in the first and fifth games.

Lapentti exhaustion

That set the pattern for the match and Lapentti was unable to offer any serious resistance to the Australian 19-year-old.

Hewitt said: "I thought I played pretty well, but I thought it would be a much harder match.

"I was really focused and I wanted to get the job done, although I was a bit surprised by how quickly I got on top of him."

Lapentti blamed exhaustion following Saturday's doubles for his disappointing performance.

"When the match started, I was simply not able to give 100%," he said.

"I just could not play my game and it was terribly frustrating.

"But I don't want to take any merit away from Lleyton, he played a great match."

Brazilian challenge

Rafter had the option not to play the dead rubber against Giovanni Lapentti, but did, and demolished the youngster.

Australia will now meet Brazil in Rio de Janeiro for the second round of the Davis Cup at the start of April.

The Australian players and coaching staff were extremely critical of the vociferous Spanish support for last year's final, and the Rio crowd is sure to be at least as rowdy.

Hewitt said: "Personally, I don't think it can get any worse than Spain, but a few people have mentioned it could be a couple of times worse.

The match is a repeat of last year's semi-final and will pit Hewitt and rafter against world number two Gustavo Kuerten.

"It will be interesting for us," Australian coach Wally Masur said.

"We will probably have a difficult surface for us in Brazil - something like slow clay.

"Kuerten is an exceptional player and the crowd will be exceptional too."