NEW YORK -- Lleyton Hewitt and Yevgeny Kafelnikov fought through five sets Friday to reach the third round of the U.S. Open, which emphasized once again that these days there are a slew of sharpshooters capable of taking out just about any of the tournament's elite players.

Fourth seeded Hewitt survived a gutsy challenge from American wild-card James Blake on Friday to book a third round berth in five gruelling sets.

Hewitt, a semifinalist here last year, rallied for a 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory in three hours and six minutes to advance and set up a clash with 25th seed Albert Portas of Spain.

Blake was outplaying Hewitt when the heat and intense humidity got to him in the fourth set.

The American appeared to be suffering from heat exhaustion but gamely finished the match despite an inability to give the fitter Hewitt much of a fight the rest of the way.

"I did the best I can," an exhausted Blake said.

After Kafelnikov's 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3 struggle to eliminate the George Bastl, no one knows the dangers of the early rounds better than the Russian.

"All the guys, 127 (other) guys in the men's draw, can play the game of tennis," the 27-year-old said after Friday's escape on one of the outside courts.

"That's the only explanation I can give you. Doesn't matter where you are in the ranking, you still have to come out and try to play hundred percent every time. There is no more easy, easy matches these days," said Kafelnikov, who also took five sets to defeat Michel Kratochvil of Switzerland in the first round.

Not as lucky were No. 31 seed Nicolas Escude, who was upset by young Argentinian David Nalbandian 4-6, 6-3, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, No. 23 seed Dominik Hrbaty lost to Albert Costa 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (5) and No. 32 seed Todd Martin fell to Tommy Robredo 6-3, 7-5, 3-6, 6-3.

A few had little trouble advancing. Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic, seeded 15th, rolled into the third round with a 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 victory against American qualifier Justin Gimelstob. No. 15 seed Tommy Haas flattened Felix Mantilla 6-1, 6-0, 6-7 (5), 6-3. In the night match, No. 18 seed Andy Roddick defeated fellow American Jack Brasington, 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (4).

Despite his rough going in the early rounds, Kafelnikov appreciates the drama of it all.

"You know, it's the beauty about men's tennis these days. If you look at the statistics, you know, first two rounds, you know, we had big number of matches in five sets. All of them are quite exciting."