Local favourites brought to their knees

THE Australia Day fireworks fizzed and died yesterday as local favourites Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Philippoussis were brought to their knees in the fourth round of the Australian Open.

Hewitt’s dreams were shredded, 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4, by an inspired Roger Federer and Philippoussis’s game was cut to ribbons by the rapier-like groundstrokes of Morocco’s Hicham Arazi.

Arazi’s 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 upset of 10th seed Philippoussis was an unpalatable appetiser for an Australian crowd hoping to celebrate their annual national holiday in style. Fans had been given some small cheer when Hewitt’s fiancée Kim Clijsters, dubbed “Aussie Kim” by the locals, earlier raced into the quarter-finals.