Federer breaks home hearts

Second seed Roger Federer (pictured) turned in a majestic display to send Lleyton Hewitt crashing out of the Australian Open today.

Federer exacted long-awaited revenge for epic defeats in the Masters Series final and Davis Cup semi-final by capitalising on a moment Hewitt let his concentration slip and charged away to a 4-6 6-3 6-0 6-4 victory.

Hewitt was serving at 2-3 and 30-30 in the second set when he was called for a questionable foot-fault.

He was furious, Federer knew it and made the break before a run of seven consecutive games hauled the Wimbledon champion from a set down to a set up.

“I am very happy to have taken my revenge on him. It hurt me big time that match in the Davis Cup so I am glad I got him,” said Federer.

“Every time we play we have had great matches. I always feel these matches can go either way and the third set was quick but I still felt it was a real battle.”

Hewitt was bellowing out in frustration but there was little he could do to arrest Federer’s march to victory and he is still to advance further than the fourth round at Melbourne Park.

His defeat followed that of Mark Philippoussis, putting a dampener on the Australia Day celebrations Down Under.