TENNIS in DEPTH.

Lleyton Hewitt will face Roger Federer in the fourth round after his third-round opponent Marcos Baghdatis retired with a shoulder injury in the second set on Saturday.

Hewitt was leading 6-0, 4-2 when Baghdatis walked to the net to concede the match and give Hewitt an early passage into the round of 16.

It was an anti-climatic end to the match after Hewitt, who lost to Marat Safin here in the 2005 final, had broken Baghdatis’s service four times to control the match on Rod Laver Arena.

Baghdatis was treated for a right shoulder injury at the changeover after dropping the opening set to love and was seen taking two painkilling tablets.

But once he was broken in the sixth game of the second set he decided he could not continue and retired.

Baghdatis said afterwards: “I just feel some pain in the shoulder. In the match I just couldn’t hit the forehand, I couldn’t control the ball.”

He added that he had been aware of a niggle prior to the game, but did not think the pain would be so severe, saying: “I wasn’t thinking about it, I had a bit of pain but nothing unusual. I didn’t think it would be this painful and this bothering during the match.”

Bookmark It