Lleyton Hewitt rolls back the years against Petzschner

LLEYTON Hewitt has the illustrious honour of being the last player to win Wimbledon since gruesome twosome Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal arrived on the scene - and if he carries on like this, he might just be the next.

ROLLING BACK THE YEARS: Lleyton Hewitt's charge at Wimbledon gathers pace with another comfortable straight-sets victory

The Australian delighted centre court in 2002 with his blistering ground-strokes and his never-say-die attitude, and in the absence of Nadal, Hewitt is flying the flag for the base-line bashers seven years on.

Hewitt romped to a 7-5, 7-6, 6-3 over Philipp Petzschner and is yet to drop a set at the All England Club as he continues his impressive comeback from hip surgery.

An extended spell on the sidelines at the end of last year saw Hewitt's world ranking drift to 56, he was blown away by Nadal at the French Open.

That was followed by a solid if unspectacular performance at Queen's which had few tennis buffs racing to the bookies to back the 28-year-old.

But his victory over world number five Juan Martin Del Potro in round two demonstrated Hewitt's love for a scrap is still as fierce as ever and he wasted no time in brushing aside Petzschner to book his place in the last 16.

Up next for Hewitt will be 23rd seed Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic, who came through a marathon five setter against Spain's David Ferrer - eventually prevailing 7-5, 7-5, 3-6, 4-6, 6-4.

The draw is now wide open for Hewitt, with a potential quarter-final clash with Andy Roddick - the man who beat him at Queen's this year, albeit 7-6, 7-6 - and he could yet face Queen's doubles partner Andy Murray in the last four.

On current form, he will be a stern test for anyone and he had far too many weapons at his disposal for Petzschner and too many gears to move through when it came to the crunch.

The German had never reached the third round at Wimbledon before, and on the pressure points against Hewitt, it showed.

Petzschner forced a second-set tie-break and threatened to make a fist of it, but Hewitt is the past master at grind his opponents down and that's exactly what he did to book his place in the last 16.

Roddick will also advance to round four, should he overcome Austria's Jurgen Melzer. History favours the American as he has a perfect 8-0 record over the Austrian.

And Murray is on court later today as he takes on Viktor Troicki, bidding to book his place in the last four, while Tommy Haas continued his excellent grass court by seeing off big-serving Croat Ivo Karlovic 7-5 7-5 1-6 6-7 (3-7) 10-8.

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