| Friday, 27 June 2008 Written by Barry Newcombe Lleyton Hewitt set up a meeting with his “good old mate” Roger Federer in the fourth round after beating 22-year-old Italian Simone Bolelli 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) on No.1 Court. Hewitt and Federer are the only previous men’s champions at this year’s tournament and the Australian was happy to have the chance of dethroning the Swiss. "You always want to play against the best and he has owned [Wimbledon] the last five years," Hewitt said. This was Hewitt’s second straight-sets win after his five-setter in the first round against Robin Haase, a reasonable measure of how he is improving as the tournament progresses. He played Bolelli last year, on that occasion conceding just five games. Although this match was closer, Hewitt’s superior baseline play gave him the edge throughout. Hewitt worked through the first set in just 27 minutes for the loss of a single game and was almost as efficient in the second, needing 38 minutes to take it 6-3. The third set was a tighter struggle as both men raised the tempo and Hewitt's 120 mph ace in the third game underlined the intensity of the contest. The first crisis of that set came for Bolelli when he was two break points down and 4-3 behind. But he served himself out of trouble and won the game with an ace. A first match point for Hewitt followed two games later. Bolelli began the game with two aces but a missed a forehand at 30-30 set up match point against him. The Italian saved himself with a serve and won the next two points with attacking tennis to level it at 6-6. In the tie-break, it was nearly all Hewitt. The Australian pulled ahead 4-1 courtesy of two errors from Bolelli, went to 5-2 on a double fault and then clinched the match with two service winners, the final one his 14th ace. For Bolelli, history was always against him. In 40 years of Open tennis only three Italians have reached the fourth round and Hewitt never looked like he was going to allow that record to be improved upon.
| Court 1 - Gentlemen's Singles - 3rd Round | |
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