Hewitt go, Hewitt go, Hewitt go

Unseeded Lleyton Hewitt roared into the fourth round of Wimbledon with a straight sets win over Philipp Petzschner.

The 2002 champion reckons he is playing his best tennis for four years and, although that may not be enough to enablethe Australian to bridge the seven-year gap, he is in the last 16 for the sixth year in a row and could become a dangerous semi-final opponent for Andy Murray.

Fresh from his memorable second-round win over fifth seed Juan Martin Del Potro and showing no sign of the hip injury that forced him out of tennis for much of last year, Hewitt overcame Germany's Petzschner in straight sets.

Not that there was anything straightforward about his 7-5 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 triumph in the noisy cauldron of Court Two, where he lifted the spirits of the green and gold fans who had failed to cheer Australian Sam Stosur to victory over Ana Ivanovic in the women's singles earlier in the day.

It was nip and tuck from the start against the big-serving German who, despite reaching the third round of Wimbledon for the first time, has still lost more matches on grass than he has won.

The 25-year-old Petzschner did not manage to break the serve of his wily opponent and invariably lost out in the baseline rallies.

It was the sixth game before Hewitt won a point on the German's serve and Petzschner produced two aces to claw back a 0-40 deficit when threatened in the eighth game.

The set remained on serve until Petzschner was broken to love in the 12th game which enabled Hewitt to draw first blood.

The German took time out to have his right foot strapped up midway through the second set, which was decided by a breaker in which Petzschner crucially dropped his serve on successive points.

And there was no way back once Petzschner failed to make the most of a couple of break points in the fourth game of the third set.

A trademark passing shot got Hewitt the all-important break in the next game and it was quickly all over, although Petzschner managed to save three match points before putting a backhand into the net.

Hewitt's reward is a fourth-round meeting with Radek Stepanek, the 30-year-old Czech who beat 16th seed David Ferrer in five sets.