Roger Federer slammed the brakes on Lleyton Hewitt's Australian Open run today, beating the former world number 4-6 6-3 6-0 6-4 in a thrilling fourth round encounter.
The Wimbledon champion had lost eight of the 10 previous encounters between the pair but under the stars, in front of a packed centre court crowd, the Swiss was a class apart.
Federer lost the opening set after his serve was broken in the first game of the match, but from that point on there was only going to be one winner.
The last time the two players met, Hewitt had come back from two sets down to win in the Davis Cup semi-finals last year. But on this occasion second seed Federer was irrepressible.
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.