diff --git a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SheetDataWriter.java b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SheetDataWriter.java
index d8394a800..4ada654b1 100644
--- a/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SheetDataWriter.java
+++ b/src/ooxml/java/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/SheetDataWriter.java
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 package org.apache.poi.xssf.streaming;
 
 import java.io.BufferedWriter;
+import java.io.Closeable;
 import java.io.File;
 import java.io.FileInputStream;
 import java.io.FileOutputStream;
@@ -48,7 +49,7 @@ import org.openxmlformats.schemas.spreadsheetml.x2006.main.STCellType;
  * this class only writes the "sheetData" document fragment
  * so that it was renamed to "SheetDataWriter"
  */
-public class SheetDataWriter {
+public class SheetDataWriter implements Closeable {
     private static final POILogger logger = POILogFactory.getLogger(SheetDataWriter.class);
     
     private final File _fd;
@@ -123,12 +124,8 @@ public class SheetDataWriter {
      * This method <em>must</em> be invoked before calling {@link #getWorksheetXMLInputStream()}
      */
     public void close() throws IOException {
-        flush();
-        _out.close();
-    }
-    
-    protected void flush() throws IOException {
         _out.flush();
+        _out.close();
     }
 
     protected File getTempFile() {
diff --git a/src/ooxml/testcases/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/TestSheetDataWriter.java b/src/ooxml/testcases/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/TestSheetDataWriter.java
index 343180b40..1a9e61879 100644
--- a/src/ooxml/testcases/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/TestSheetDataWriter.java
+++ b/src/ooxml/testcases/org/apache/poi/xssf/streaming/TestSheetDataWriter.java
@@ -58,7 +58,7 @@ public final class TestSheetDataWriter {
         SheetDataWriter writer = new SheetDataWriter();
         try {
             writer.outputQuotedString(unicodeSurrogates);
-            writer.flush();
+            writer.close();
             File file = writer.getTempFile();
             FileInputStream is = new FileInputStream(file);
             String text;
@@ -69,7 +69,7 @@ public final class TestSheetDataWriter {
             }
             assertEquals(unicodeSurrogates, text);
         } finally {
-            writer.close();
+            IOUtils.closeQuietly(writer);
         }
     }
 }