Switzerland's Roger Federer produced a masterful display of precision tennis to outclass Lleyton Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Monday.
Playing at the peak of his powers, Federer ruined Australia's annual national day celebrations when he clinically disposed of the last surviving local player. Australian Mark Philippoussis also lost on Monday.
Hewitt had beaten Federer in eight of their 10 previous meetings, including their last meeting on the same Melbourne Park court when he came from two sets behind in an epic Davis Cup encounter last September.
But this time there was no coming back for the Australian as 22-year-old Federer approached the same dizzy heights he touched in winning Wimbledon last year.
"I am very, very happy to take my revenge on him because it hurt me very bad when he beat me here," Federer said.
"This is very big for me and my career. I'm chasing number one in this tournament.
"I'm the bad guy who put Lleyton out of the draw, but my goal is to go further, not just to beat Lleyton."
Federer will play David Nalbandian in the quarter-finals after the Argentine, runner-up to Hewitt at Wimbledon two years ago, beat his countryman Guillermo Canas 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.
Hewitt made a flying start, breaking Federer in the opening game of the match when the Swiss let him back into the game with a double-fault.
Hewitt saved two break points in his first service game as Federer tried to respond straight away but the Australian held his remaining service games with ease to grab the first set in 34 minutes.
UNUSUALLY NERVOUS
Federer had been unusually nervous, committing a string of unforced errors as Hewitt began applying the pressure, but he was quickly into the groove in the second set.
He broke Hewitt for the first time in the sixth game after the Australian briefly lost his concentration after being called for a foot-fault, then saved a couple of break points to square the match at one set all.
"It's obviously disappointing when you hit an ace and you get a foot-fault called on you on game point," Hewitt said.
"But I still wouldn't have won the match, at the stage anyway, so I'm not going to take anything away from Roger's win, he was just too good for me tonight."
Hewitt led 40-15 in his opening service game of the third set before his game suddenly started to unravel with Federer reeling off six games on the trot to take a two sets to one lead.
Federer got the decisive break in the fifth game of the fourth set with a series of spectacular running forehands including one when he retrieved a Hewitt smash from between the tramlines.
Hewitt had some chances to break back but each time Federer answered the challenge before serving out for victory, sealing it with an emphatic smash.
"He goes through patches where he's pretty good and you have to weather the storm," Hewitt said.
"To his credit he came up with some pretty big points when he needed to."
