Sshh...Genius at Work

Yes, the Genius was out in full force tonight. The tennis master, Roger Federer put up a masterful display enroute to knocking out Lleyton Hewitt in a Round 4 match at the Australian Open. The Swiss World No. 1 knocked out the local hope Hewitt 6-2, 6-3, 6-4 in just 1hr ..min. The No. 22 seed Hewitt has now lost 15 matches in a row to Federer, this being their 25th meeting.

With the crowd behind him, Hewitt started the game brightly as he brought up deuce on Federer's serve in the third game. But any hopes of a break were snuffed by two aces as Federer continued his brilliant serving from the last game. It was Federer's turn then to put pressure as he forced a break in the sixth game. Federer started taking control of the match as he went into overdrive unleashing some amazing array of shots for which Hewitt had no answer. After racing away to 5-2, Federer pushed Hewitt again on his serve. The Australian had to fight for every point as the game went longer than the rest of the set, with Federer finally forcing the second break to seal the set.

There were no break points for Hewitt in the second set as well as the set turned out to be a repeat of the first. Federer made Hewitt run all around the court with his backhand slices asking too much of the former World No. 1. The break of serve for Federer came in the fourth after a long battle. An impeccable backhand cross-court return from Federer, that dropped into the corner summed up the match as Hewitt was a mere spectator. Federer threatened for a double break and even brought up set point before Hewitt extended the set by holding on. Federer served to love to take the set 6-3.

It was more of a close contest in the third set as Hewitt summoned every ounce of energy left in him. He attacked with his net approaches to which came the fitting replies from Federer. Federer broke in the 7th game to go to 4-3. But, Hewitt came back strongly to force a break of his own as he looked to do some justice for the boisterous crowd backing him. But, Federer snuffed out any hopes by breaking again and then serving out brilliantly to finish the match in straight sets.

It was another of those easy wins for Federer, contrary to expectations. But, the quarterfinal clash against Nikolay Davydenko will be anything but easy.

No. 6 seed Davydenko had to fight hard to get past No. 9 Fernando Verdasco. in five sets, 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 6-7(5), 6-3. After winning the first two sets, the Spaniard Verdasco fought back to level the game. Davydenko won by virtue of his better serve and less unforced errors. Verdasco had a horror service outing with an amazing 20 double faults!

Elsewhere, French hope Jo-Wilfried Tsonga advanced to the quarters after a gruelling five-set encounter against Spaniar Nicolas Almagro. He won 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 6-7(6), 9-7. He would be gunning for revenge when he plays No. 3 seed Novak Djokovi in the quarters, the man who beat him in '08 final.