MELBOURNE: Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt will reignite one of the most enduring rivalries in tennis in their fourth round showdown at the Australian Open today.
The Swiss world number one is lining up for his 24th encounter with the feisty Australian, whose rivalry stems back to 1999 on the senior tour and even earlier in the juniors.
Federer leads Hewitt 16-7 and has won their last 14 encounters.
The 15-time Grand Slam champion tossed aside 31st-seeded Spaniard Albert Montanes 6-3, 6-4, 6-4 to advance to the round of 16, while two-time Grand Slam champion Hewitt got through after Marcos Baghdatis retired injured early.
“It’s an incredible run for me against him. I cannot believe I’ve beaten him that many times in a row,” said Federer ahead of their marquee night match.
“But you’ve got to respect the player he is and the champion he is. A player of this calibre can have a good day.
“I mean, I have not every day had a good day.
“Hewitt is still one of the fittest guys on the tour and is still very strong in the mind and that always makes it a big challenge when you play against him.”
Although Hewitt has not beaten Federer since Australia’s Davis Cup tie with Switzerland here on Rod Laver Arena in 2003, he is keenly looking forward to finally getting over over the world number one.
“We’ve played a lot of big matches,” Hewitt said.
“We’ve played the final of the US Open, we played a Davis Cup match here as well.
“Nine times out of 10 I’ve played him in most of the majors as well, apart from the French Open.
“So a lot of them have been pretty big-occasion matches.”
Hewitt, who was world number one from 2001 to 2003 before Federer’s phenomenal rise, has enormous respect for the Swiss legend.
“He’s possibly the greatest player ever to play,” he said.
But he is taking encouragement from his last encounter with Federer when he took a set off him before losing in four sets in the third round at last year’s US Open.
“My knee was probably not in such good shape going into that match (against Federer), which I’m a lot more confident on now,” Hewitt said.
“But I was still able to take the first set off him and push him towards the end of the third set, which could have gone either way.
“So the motivation is there. It’s not going to be easy, but I’ll be ready come Monday.” — AFP