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The latest-ever start after a day of rain - play began at nearly midnight on Saturday - wound to a near-dawn finish at the Rod Laver arena and as Sunday morning breakfast grills were being fired up at coffee shops all over Melbourne.

 Hewitt's 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 win took four hours 45 minutes, with the Aussie hero now facing a quick recovery if he's to be ready for well-rested third seed Novak Djokovic in Monday's fourth round.

 "I'm not sure how I got through it, I don't know what to say," said an emotional Hewitt as Cyprus opponent Baghdatis left the court with tears in his eyes.

 "I should have closed it out in fourth" - he led 5-1. "But all of my mental strength and fitness training paid off.

 "This is one of my best wins mentally to come back and beat him in five sets."

   Hewitt missed on a match point in the eighth game of the fourth set and waded through a 15-minute, eight-deuce fifth game of the final set, breaking Baghdatis in the battle of sheer nerve.

 Hewitt wasn't done even when serving for victory leading 5-3. Memories of the two times he had tried and failed to wrap things in the fourth set returned and the Australian needed four more match points to finally go through.

 The win came as top seed Roger Federer was sleeping off his own close call in the evening.

 The top seed and three-time winner underwent involuntary shock therapy at the hands of dedicated Serb spoiler Janko Tipsarevic before finally emerging with a 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (7-1), 5-7, 6-1, 10-8 win on Saturday.

 Ill with a stomach virus the week before the start, the world number one came to the court this week without any preliminary matches.

 But the Swiss was able to affect a miracle cure after winning his first two rounds easily, despite coming under huge pressure from a number 49 with nothing to lose and a will to win. "I just felt slow from the start really," said Federer, who still  fired 39 aces, a portion of his 96 winners, while converting on just four of 21 break point chances.

 "It wasn't one of those matches where I came out and just felt this is going to be a great night of tennis. It took me a while to get into the match, really."

   "It took me a couple sets almost to feel like, okay, slowly warming up."

   Federer needed nearly four and a half hours to move into the fourth round in a huge test after losing just three games in each of his two previous matches.

 Serb third seed Djokovic, who watched the fifth set, was earlier ruthless in his demolition of American Sam Querrey, 6-3, 6-1, 6-3.

 "Janko, all credit to him. He was fighting all the way through. But he got tired in the end and Roger was the fresher one and he had some good and lucky shots."

   Unfancied Croatian teenager Marin Cilic stunned 2007 finalist Fernando Gonzalez 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3, 6-1 to send the seventh seed crashing.

 Cilic, 19, a first-round loser in all three Grand Slams he contested last season, will next face American James Blake on Monday.

 The Croatian fired 14 aces and 30 winners, leaving the frustrated South American with a smashed racket after losing the first set.

 James Blake scored his first-ever comeback from the depths of despair, recovering from two sets down to overhaul Sebastien Grosjean 4-6, 2-6, 6-0, 7- (7-5), 6-2.

 The American 12th-seed had a dismal mark in five-setters, with his victory under the roof at the Vodafone arena only his second from a dozen matches that have gone the distance.

 Women's fourth seed Ana Ivanovic defeated Slovenian Katarina Srebotnik 6-3, 6-4. But Russia was routed as two women's seeds went out.

 Svetlana Kuznetsova became the highest to fall, with the number two crashing out to Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3, 6-4.

 The Polish teenage winner advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam for the third time in three years with the victory.

 "It's pretty simple, I think I beat myself up out there," confessed 2004-US-Open champion 'Kuzy.' "I didn't do much right. I lost the match and this is it."

   "She played well, but I was not doing anything to win the match."

   Russian Maria Kirilenko eliminated sixth-seeded compatriot Anna Chakvetadze 7-6 (8-6), 6-1, 6-2, claiming victory in a final game which went to five deuces and five match points.

 The Kirilenko comeback lifted the 20-year-old's record to 2-4 against Chakvetadze, who may still be suffering with nerves after a home invasion she and her family suffered last month.

 Eighth seed Venus Williams beat India's Sania Mirza 7-6 (7-0), 6-4 in a match which ended near midnight.

By Bill Scott, dpa