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.

The Belgian second seed stayed on track for her first grand slam title, beating Italy’s Silvia Farina Elia, 6-3, 6-3. She will next play self-confessed tennis bad girl Anastasia Myskina after the Russian beat ninth seed Chanda Rubin, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2.

But as dusk fell, with fireworks being let off outside Melbourne Park, second seed Federer set about lighting up centre court.

The Wimbledon champion was simply irresistible, hitting clean winners from the back, serving with great accuracy and power and sweeping the tenacious Hewitt from side to side.

The three-sets-to-one scoreline hardly did his superiority justice. Hewitt won the first set by breaking Federer in the opening game. From that point on there was only going to be one winner.

Federer had lost eight of the 10 previous encounters between the pair but under the stars in front of a packed center court crowd, the 22-year-old Swiss was a class apart.

“When I heard Monday was Australia Day I was a bit worried because I knew the atmosphere would be worse,” Federer said after beating the 15th seed. “And I felt this was again a real battle.” The last time the two players met, Hewitt came back from two sets down to win in the Davis Cup semi-finals 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 smiled.

Hewitt was sanguine in defeat. “He played in patches tonight very well. I’m not going to take anything away from Roger, he was just too good tonight,” he said.

Federer, who is in the quarter-finals here for the first time, will meet Argentine eighth seed David Nalbandian for a place in the semis. Nalbandian beat fellow Argentine Guillermo Canas, 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

Philippoussis also came up against an opponent who was simply too good.

“Nothing much I could do today,” he conceded. “Just have to take my hat off to him.”

Unseeded Arazi will meet Spain’s Juan Carlos Ferrero in the quarter-finals. The third seed ousted Romania’s Andrei Pavel, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2. “It’s been a long time since I played like that,” 30-year-old Arazi said.

Philippoussis had looked lost on centre court. The defeat was a bitter blow to the 27-year-old who has never made it past the fourth round here since his debut in 1994.

“I tried to do everything out there, but I just, sort of let the crowd down,” Philippoussis said. French schoolgirl Tatiana Golovin’s amazing run at the first grand slam of the year came to an end. The 16-year-old was thrashed, 6-2, 6-0, by American doubles specialist Lisa Raymond, conqueror of Venus Williams in the previous round.

Clijsters can expect to be tested a little more in the next round when she runs into Myskina. The Russian is ready.

“Against Kim, you just have to do your best,” sixth seed Myskina said.