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Federer levels Davis Cup semi in Melbourne

Roger Federer beat Australia's Mark Philippoussis 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (3) in a Wimbledon final rematch yesterday to get Switzerland back level in the Davis Cup semifinal.

Earlier, Lleyton Hewitt gave Australia a 1-0 lead in the best-of-five semifinal when he cruised to a 6-4, 6-4, 6-1 win over Michel Kratochvil.

Philippoussis had his usual slow start, allowing Federer to go up 3-0 after appearing to sleepwalk through the opening games. And things didn't improve much as Federer dominated an error-prone Philippoussis before a crowd of 13,022 at Rod Laver Arena.

After winning the first set on a second-service ace, Federer went up 2-0 in the second as Philippoussis, who had only 59 percent of his first serves in during the opening set, continued to have his problems.

Up 4-3, Federer fought off a break point to go up 5-3 and won the second set two games later, despite having a set point on Philippoussis' serve in between.

Down a break in the third, Philippoussis broke Federer in the sixth and eighth games to lead 5-3 before the Swiss rallied to force a tiebreaker.

Federer went up 4-2 in the tiebreaker on a service winner and served out with an ace.

"He fought back and I really had to give everything in the third set," said Federer. "I wanted to get it over in three because anything can happen if it goes past that."

As the bongo drums of the "Fanatics" Australian cheer squad drowned out the cowbells of the red-shirted Swiss supporters, Hewitt won the opening set in 45 minutes.

The Australian broke Kratochvil's serve in the third, fifth and final games of the third set. Kratochvil set up match point for Hewitt with a double-fault, then hit a hard Hewitt forehand into the net to give Australia the first match.

"I played really well and was aggressive from the start," said Hewitt, who said he was suffering from a cold and "was happy to get through today."
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