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MELBOURNE - Roger Federer has revealed one of his reasons for labelling Lleyton Hewitt the rival he enjoys playing tennis against the most - because the Australian puts up a fight.
Despite having won their last nine encounters, Federer maintains a great respect for Australia's former world No 1 and still regularly lists him among his more serious threats at the grand slams.
Federer likes a challenge, even if it didn't look like it when he dismantled Andy Roddick for the loss of just six games in Thursday night's Australian Open semi-final.
Federer was asked how his scintillating performance, which included a second-set "bagel" - as a 6-0 scoreline is known in tennis - compared to his 6-0, 7-6, 6-0 demolition of Hewitt in the 2004 US Open final in New York.
The world No 1 felt his defeat of Hewitt was probably more satisfying, not only because the stage was bigger but because Hewitt at least offered some resistance.
"Lleyton Hewitt, yeah look, that one was the finals. This is the semis. That makes a big difference already," Federer said ahead of tomorrow night's Open final against Fernando Gonzalez.
"It's hard to really say what the difference is because there's been quite some years apart of that now.
"I remember also against Lleyton, I was so much in control for one and a half sets, then all of a sudden he came back, whereas Andy never really came back once I was in the lead.
"This one probably felt a bit easier because I wasn't in the second or third set challenged as much as I was in the first. Whereas with Lleyton, all of a sudden it got really close in the second set and then just I raced away with it once again in the third.
"I don't think we can be too harsh on Andy because it was just one of those great days of mine. I just was playing so well and he couldn't really get his teeth into the match once the first set was over."
It came as a surprise last week when the Swiss superstar threw up Hewitt's name when asked who he liked playing the most.
"I would like probably to play Lleyton," Federer said. "We match up really well.
"I'm talking more tournaments because exos (exhibitions) I haven't played enough. I always enjoyed playing against Lleyton.
"I think (Rafael) Nadal also now is very interesting. (Marat) Safin just in general. Different personalities again. (His) shot-making compared to mine, it's always good fun."
Federer will be chasing his third title at Melbourne Park - and 10th major in total - while Gonzalez is appearing in his first grand slam final.
Gonzalez's relentless march to the title match has made Hewitt's third-round four-set loss to the Chilean look all that more honourable.
Since ousting an underdone Hewitt, the 10th seed hasn't dropped a set against either world No 5 James Blake, the second-ranked Nadal or 12th seed and three-time Open semi-finalist Tommy Haas.
Since winning his second slam at Wimbledon in 2002, Hewitt has now lost to either the eventual champion or runner-up at 11 of his last 17 majors -- including five times to Federer.
The world No 19 will have another new coach when he sets out to end his run of outs at the French Open after Scott Draper yesterday opted to pursue his golf career rather than stay on as Hewitt's fulltime mentor.
- AAP
