(Sports Network) - Reigning five-time champion Roger Federer got past former titlist Lleyton Hewitt on Saturday to reach the fourth round at the U.S. Open. Former runner-up Novak Djokovic joined the amazing Federer in the round of 16. In an upset, American John Isner took down fifth-seeded fellow countryman Andy Roddick in a five-set battle.

The world No. 1 Federer dropped the first set against the 31st-seeded Hewitt before charging back for a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4 decision at Ashe Stadium. Federer beat Hewitt in the 2004 final on the grounds of the Billie Jean King USTA National Tennis Center.

Federer got past Hewitt despite piling up an uncharacteristic 59 unforced errors, which was 22 more than the 2001 champion Hewitt.

The 15-time major champion Federer advanced in 2 hours, 33 minutes with the help of 15 aces among his 51 winners, while Hewitt settled for 26 winners in the setback. The Swiss great also tallied two more service breaks (5-3) than his Aussie counterpart.

Federer, who is also the reigning Wimbledon and French Open champ, has now beaten Hewitt in their last 14 matchups, dating back to 2004, and is 16-7 lifetime against the fiery Aussie.

"I think we respect each other in a big way," said Federer. "We played the first time when we were 16 years old in Zurich, actually at the World Youth Cup in Switzerland for some junior thing. I saved match point to win, and here we are, 11 years later and (we've) played so many times on tour, even played doubles together at Wimbledon. So I mean, we have a lot of respect for each other."

The former world No. 1 and two-time Grand Slam event champion Hewitt has been climbing back up in the rankings after undergoing hip surgery last summer.

The 28-year-old Federer, who hasn't lost here since 2003, beat Britain's Andy Murray in last year's Big Apple finale. The sublime Swiss will next meet 14th- seeded Spaniard Tommy Robredo, who upended 21st-seeded American James Blake, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-4.

"He's so good at dictating play, playing on his terms," said Hewitt. "It's very hard on his service games, you can't really play the style of tennis that you want to play out there. That's the hard thing. When he is able to play the way he wants to play and dictate terms, he's going to be very tough to beat."

Isner outlasted Roddick, 7-6 (7-3), 6-3, 3-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), in 3 hours, 51 minutes at Ashe Stadium to secure his spot in the round of 16. The 6-foot-9 Isner fired an amazing 38 aces to take down the 2003 U.S. Open champion.

"There's a lot that's out of your hands with the way he plays," said Roddick. "I said it before, you can't really teach 6-foot-9, especially coming down on a serve. You try to fight it off as much as you can. Sometimes you can, and sometimes it's completely out of your hands."

This was a monumental win for the 6-foot-9 Isner, who will now make his first career appearance in the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament.

"That's kind of my game," said Isner. "Hit big serves, get into the net, hit my forehand heavy, dictate play with that. I know he does that really well also. But it's my strength, as well. Maybe I was a little bit fortunate to win tonight. But I played well and I think I deserve it."

Roddick saved a match point in the fourth set before going on to win that set and force a decisive fifth set. The players held serve in the final set to force a tiebreaker.

The former Georgia star held a 6-3 edge in the tiebreaker, but a feisty Roddick saved two more match points with a pair of aces. Roddick, though, fired a forehand return into the net to give Isner the win.

Roddick is the first of the top 16 seeded men to lose.

Up next for Isner is 10th-seeded Spaniard Fernando Verdasco, who needed five sets himself to discard 20th-seeded German Tommy Haas, 3-6, 7-5, 7-6 (10-8), 1-6, 6-4.

The fourth-seeded Djokovic was tested mightily by American qualifier Jesse Witten before prevailing in 6-7 (2-7), 6-3, 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 fashion at Armstrong Stadium. The 26-year-old Witten needed a wild card to get into the qualifying here and had never won an ATP-level match before going 2-1 this week.

Djokovic got past Witten in 3 hours, 28 minutes with the help of a whopping nine service breaks. The surprising Witten tallied six breaks in a losing effort. Unfortunately for Witten, who notched 11 more winners than his Serbian counterpart (42-31), he piled up 11 double faults on Day 6.

The former Aussie Open champion Djokovic was the 2007 runner-up here to Federer.

Up next for Djokovic will be 15th-seeded Czech Radek Stepanek, who came back to best 23rd-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3. The Top-16 seeds in the draw are now a perfect 35-0 this week.

Two-time U.S. Open semifinalist Nikolay Davydenko cruised into the fourth round with a 6-4, 7-5, 7-5 victory over Swiss Marco Chiudinelli. The Russian Davydenko, seeded eighth this year, reached the final four here in 2006 and 2007.

Davydenko's round-of-16 opponent will be 12th-seeded surprise French Open runner-up Robin Soderling, who continued his fine play of late with a 6-2, 7-5, 6-7 (6-8), 6-1 victory over 22nd-seeded American Sam Querrey. The 6- foot-6 Querrey was fresh off his runner-up finish in New Haven last week and captured the US Open Series title heading into the year's final Grand Slam event.

The third round is scheduled to conclude here on Sunday, including matches for the 2008 U.S. Open runner-up Murray and former world No. 1 Rafael Nadal. The second-seeded Murray will meet American Taylor Dent, while a third-seeded Nadal, the reigning Australian Open titlist, will encounter 32nd-seeded fellow Spaniard Nicolas Almagro.

Also on Sunday, sixth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin del Potro will take on Austrian Daniel Koellerer and seventh-seeded former Aussie Open runner-up Jo-Wilfried Tsonga will be opposed by fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau.

The 2009 U.S. Open champ will pocket at least $1.6 million.







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