NEW YORK -- After U.S. Open officials said they were unable to determine whether Lleyton Hewitt's remarks during his match against James Blake on Friday were racially motivated, the Australian said he wants the incident to fade away.

"I think everyone's moved past it," said Hewitt, after he won a 6-1, 6-3, 6-4 third round match against Albert Portas of Spain on Sunday.

"The ITF couldn't work out anything chargeable in it. That's pretty much it. It was something that got very blown out of proportion, I think."

Hewitt asked the umpire in Friday's match to remove an African-American linesmen who called a foot fault on him twice during the match against African-American Blake by saying, "Look at him and you tell me what the similarity is."

While the 20-year-old Hewitt refused to address what he meant by using the word "similarity" during a press conference on Sunday, he did acknowledge he has made some mistakes in his still young career.

At the French Open earlier this year he also referred to a court official as "spastic."

"I think it all got blown out of proportion," said Hewitt, who reached his only Grand Slam semifinal at last year's U.S. Open.

"It's something that for sure I don't think anyone wanted to go through. But I'll learn from it.

"You know, you have to learn from your mistakes. I made mistakes on and off the tennis court. If I'm going to be a better player on and off the court, I've got to learn from that."

Hewitt, who did discuss the incident with Blake privately, acknowledged that he respects the way the American handled the situation, basically not taking a stand in the controversy.

"(He's) very classy -- he's a classy guy," Hewitt said. "I've known James since the juniors. I've never been close to him. I haven't seen him around a lot. He's going to be around for a long time.

"He handles himself very, very well on the court and off the court."