Hewitt survives stunning collapse

Lleyton Hewitt survives a stunning collapse to beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in five sets to reach 4th round in Melbourne

20 January 2008
Home favourite Lleyton Hewitt has survived a stunning collapse this morning to beat Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis in five sets to reach the fourth round at the Australian Tennis Open in Melbourne. The match ended at 4.33am local time, the latest finish at a grand slam event.

A bemused Hewitt, who blew a 5-1 lead in the fourth set, says they should have been on court earlier as they were told the women's match was going to be moved to another court. But it did not happen and Hewitt and Baghdatis started at 11.47pm.

World number one Roger Federer has averted a grand slam disaster in dramatic fashion at Melbourne Park to keep his Australian Tennis Open title defence alive. Seriously out-of-sorts and often-rattled, Federer rallied from two-sets-to-one down to squeeze out a 6-7 7-6 5-7 6-1 10-8 victory over unseeded Serb Janko Tipsarevic in an epic encounter stretching four hours and 27 minutes.

Federer says it was a great match and he is just happy he was able to pull through.

Women's second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova crashed out but there have been wins for Ana Ivanovic and Venus Williams.

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