Fans' favourite Hewitt humbled in Melbourne

Exactly 36 hours after he had gone to bed following his all-night third round match against Marcos Baghdatis on Sunday morning the Australian number one was back on court against number three seed Novak Djokovic.

The renowned battler and former Wimbledon champion tried his damnedest, but he did not have enough in him to stop the 21 year-old Serb steaming to a 7-5 6-3 6-3 victory to grab his place in the quarter final.

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The historic 4.36am finish of his epic five-setter had inevitably plunged Hewitt into a disrupted sleep pattern, and these days nothing less than perfect preparation is required to tackle the brilliant Djokovic.

The Serb is the man best equipped to stop Roger Federer winning his third straight Australian Open title and the two of them remain on course to meet in the semi-finals, assuming Djokovic can get past Spain's David Ferrer in the next round.

Hewitt led by a break in both the opening two sets and it was to his credit that he did not merely subside when his opponent came back to edge him out of a first set that had already taken an hour.

The Australian also declined to blame the temporary 'jetlag' caused by going on court against Baghdatis at 11.45pm on Saturday night for his exit.

"It's not ideal and it does throw your body clock out a bit but that wasn't why I lost, he was just better," said Hewitt. "I felt ready to go at the start but as the match wore on I maybe lost a little sharpness. I could have slept all day yesterday (Sunday) but I knew I had to get up and do my rehab and start preparing."

Deprived of any pace on the ball, Djokovic initially looked perplexed and admitted being nervous, but he is desperately hard to beat from the baseline and he also displayed an occasional willingness to come to the net.

The result was that with six days of its Grand Slam still left to go Australia was left without a home challenger in the singles events, a sensation that will be familiar to anyone who visits SW19 in the summer.

Federer was another who had endured a taxing five-setter on Saturday night, albeit only finishing mid-evening, and he managed to back it up to get into his allotted quarter final position.

The world number one will now face James Blake after seeing off the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 6-4 7-6 6-3 in a match that was tougher than the scoreline suggests.

Federer had to save two set points in the tiebreak after trailing 5-2 and could be grateful that the talented Berdych was true to his tag of being a choker on the big points.

He was happy to finish it in straight sets, but claimed, "I felt good, there were no after-effects. Of course it throws you off your rhythm a little when you play a five-setter in the middle of a tournament. Thank God he didn't win the second set because you never know what's going to happen."