TENNIS in DEPTH.

Bernard Tomic insists everything is now “cool” in his relationship with Lleyton Hewitt after a belated exchange of phone calls between the two biggest names in Australian men’s tennis.

Hewitt had been offended by a perceived snub from Tomic at Wimbledon last year, when the young star turned down an invitation to practise with the former world No.1.

Tomic said it was a misunderstanding as he had been suffering from swine flu.

The 17-year-old phoned Hewitt in December to try and clear the air.

Hewitt called back last week on the eve of the upcoming Davis Cup tie against Taiwan, where Tomic is set to become Australia’s youngest-ever competitor.

“I called Lleyton in December and it was good to hear back from him about a week [ago],” Tomic said on Saturday.

“We spoke, we’ve fixed it all up, it was just a bit of a misunderstanding we had, but we’re all cool now which is the main thing.”

Tomic said he was unconcerned that it took Hewitt more than two months to get back in touch.

“We wanted to focus on the summer, which is probably why I called him and he didn’t call back [until February],” he said.

“There was the Australian Open coming up and a big season.

“He gave me a call after that which was good and we’ve sorted it out.”

Long-time Davis Cup warrior Hewitt is unavailable for the March 5-7 tie against Taiwan at Melbourne Park as he recovers from post-Australian Open hip surgery.

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Lleyton Hewitt has been forced to undergo a second bout of hip surgery and faces another long stint on the sidelines.

Hewitt, who was beaten in straight sets by top seed Roger Federer in the fourth round of the Australian Open, hopes to return to the sport in time for the French Open in May.

Hewitt said he injured his right hip while playing in the recent Hopman Cup.

‘‘I was in a reasonable amount of pain but I’ve played with pain before … I’m able to block it out as much as possible,’’ he said.

‘‘But against (Marcos) Baghdatis in Sydney it wasn’t good and that’s why I had to fall away at that match and concentrate on the Australian Open.

Hewitt, who turns 29 next month, said he ‘‘absolutely’’ had the desire to keep playing.

‘‘Otherwise I wouldn’t have had the operation straight away.

‘‘At the end of the day with the scans before the Australian Open we knew the decision was pretty much out of my hands.

‘‘If I’d waited any longer it would have been similar to 2008 where I prolonged it and ended up missing the US Open.

‘‘As it is I’ll be back and ready for the French Open.’’

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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.”

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Lleyton Hewitt dug deep into his reserves of time-honoured grit to defeat American Donald Young on Thursday and set up an enticing third round encounter with Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus.

Hewitt and Baghdatis’s last meeting at the Australian Open was another third round encounter in 2008, a five-set marathon that had both players slugging it out until after 4:30 a.m. — the tournament’s latest ever finish.

The 22nd seeded Australian won the match but Baghdatis, who rallied to defeat Spain’s David Ferrer earlier on Thursday, avenged the loss in a hard-fought three-set win at the Sydney International last week.

“We’ve played each other three times. It’s not quite like Nadal-Federer just yet,” Hewitt, wearing the Australian flag on his sleeve, told reporters after defeating Young 7-6 6-4 6-1.

“I know what to expect. He’s in good form and hitting the ball extremely clean. He’s gonna be feeling confident after winning last week.”

“Knocking off David Ferrer in five sets isn’t easy either,” said Hewitt, who was beaten in another hard-fought clash by the Cypriot at the quarter finals in Wimbledon in 2006.

Two-time grand slam champion Hewitt last major tilt at his home major was in 2005 when Marat Safin beat him in the final, but the Australian still dreams of hoisting the trophy despite the growing toll of age and injuries.

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Lleyton was rarely troubled as he cruised to a straight sets victory and dropped just six games against the qualifier in one hour and 40 minutes.

The 22nd seed only faced one break point against the 194th-ranked Ricardo Hocevar, who was making his maiden grand slam appearance, and hit 33 winners and 10 aces.

Due to face world No 1 Roger Federer in the fourth round if he gets that far, Hewitt said he was in peak form and ready for a crack at the title.

“I’m hitting the ball pretty well,” he said. “My ball striking has been pretty good ever since I came back from hip surgery, it’s more the confidence in moving and getting into the right position to do it.

“There’s a lot guys that are ahead of me on ranking that I think I can take care of. “

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Fifth seeded American Sam Querrey took an early exit at the Medibank International tennis event, a final Australian Open tune-up.

Querrey, coming off a 2009 that saw him win an event in Los Angeles, was beaten by Evgeny Korolev of Kazakhstan, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, in a first-round encounter on Tuesday.

Sixth seed Viktor Troicki and No. 8 seed Benjamin Becker were both opening- round victors. Troicki of Serbia and Becker of Germany played on outside courts and were straight-set winners. Troicki beat France’s Florent Serra, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4; and Becker dispatched Argentine qualifier Juan Ignacio Chela, 6-3, 6-3.

American Mardy Fish won his first-round match, beating Aussie wild card Carsten Ball, 6-4, 7-6 (7-4) at Ken Rosewall Arena. Fish faces Korolev next.

In one other early match Tuesday, Frenchman Julien Benneteau upended Dudi Sela of Israel, 6-3, 6-1.

Fourth-seeded Aussie icon Lleyton Hewitt, a four-time winner of this event who won here back-to-back twice (2000-01, 2004-05), will face Italian Andreas Seppi in a second-round match on Wednesday.

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Australia bounced back from a disappointing opening Tie loss with Samantha Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt dominating the USA’s Melanie Oudin and John Isner to win the Tie 2-1.

Stosur rebounded from her opening day loss to Romania’s Sorana Cirstea to get the better of 18-year-old American Oudin 6-2, 6-4. Hewitt then backed up his hard fought win over Victor Hanescu by dominating giant American John Isner 6-1, 7-5.

The Americans then fought back in the mixed doubles from a set down to win in the third set Match Tie-break 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (10/5).

The win keeps Australia’s hopes of making Saturday’s Final alive, but it will all come down to winning the remaining Tie on Thursday against Spanish pair Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Tommy Robredo, and then hoping other results go their way.

The USA’s chances of winning a sixth Hopman Cup is over for another year with Oudin and Isner winning just the one rubber from six so far.

Stosur started strongly with her power game in full swing against the American teenager. The Australian world No. 13 raced to a 6-2 first lead and then 4-2 in the second before a brief rally back from Oudin.

The American was broken twice in the first set, but held serve four of the five times in the second, but that one break was enough for Stosur to secure the victory 6-4.

“I definitely wanted to make sure that if I got that lead then I was able to close it out, and I played well from the first to the last point.”

Isner’s big game was on song for much of his game on Sunday against Robredo before he fell in three sets, but Hewitt didn’t let him settle by putting on a display of his very best hitting, running and overall court play to race to a 5-0 lead and then win the first set 6-1.

The second set was a much tighter affair with neither player giving an inch over the first 10 games. Hewitt then took hold of the match again, though, by breaking the American to go up 6-5 and then he won 7-5 to secure the Tie for Australia.

Australia again asserted its dominance to begin the mixed doubles in terrific fashion winning the first set 6-2. America didn’t want to lose their first six rubbers of the Cup, though, and won the second set 6-1 and then in the Match Tie-break 10 points to five.

The loss means Australia has now lost seven straight mixed doubles encounters in the Hopman Cup.

Australia will next play Spain on Thursday while the other two teams in Group A, Spain and Romania, will do battle in tonight’s Session 6.

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