Federer wipes out Philippousis

WIMBLEDON champion Roger Federer swept past big-serving Mark Philippoussis in Melbourne yesterday to haul Switzerland level 1-1 in their Davis Cup semi-final against Australia.

Runner-up to Federer at Wimbledon in July, Philippoussis’s key weapon deserted him at Melbourne Park as the Swiss broke serve five times in his 6-3 6-4 7-6 victory, prompting visiting fans to jangle cow bells in the stands.

“I’m on a 10-match (Davis Cup) winning streak now so I’m very happy with my game,” said Federer, who will play doubles on Saturday and reverse singles on Sunday.

Australia’s former world number one Lleyton Hewitt had earlier given Australia the perfect start to the tie with a 6-4 6-4 6-1 win over Michel Kratochvil. The winner of this semi will face either Spain or Argentina in November’s final.

Philippoussis dropped serve in the second game of the first set. Despite breaking back in the fifth game, the world number 15 dropped serve again in the eighth game with a double fault to trail 5-3.

Federer pulled out a second-service ace to clinch the first set 6-3 in 30 minutes before breaking the Australian’s serve immediately in the first game of the second set.

The world number three survived a break point in the eighth game to hold for a 5-3 advantage before taking out the set in 43 minutes.

The third set was a tighter affair which inched into a tiebreak, Federer taking it 7-3 with an ace in front of 13,022 fans.

Hewitt broke serve in the opening game of his match against the world number 129 and never relaxed his grip. He took the set in 45 minutes and held the early advantage in the second with a break in the third game as he also became more dominant on his own serve.

Hewitt, who improved his Davis Cup singles record to 21 wins from 26 matches, grabbed another break in the fifth game of the third set to complete an easy victory in two hours and one minute.

Swiss captain Marc Rosset, has named himself to play doubles with Federer today.