Lleyton Hewitt warmed up for a show-stopping fourth-round date with Roger Federer by hustling past Italy's Simon Bolelli 6-1 6-3 7-6 at Wimbledon today.
The Australian, the only men's winner in the draw other than five-times champion Federer, barely broke sweat in the opening two sets on a humid afternoon, easily outclassing Bolelli to reach the last 16 for the fifth year running.
Hewitt made his intentions clear from the outset, firing an ace and grinding winners from both flanks to frustrate Bolelli, who until this week had never won back-to-back matches on grass.
Bolelli finally showed some resistance in the third set, saving a match point in the 10th game but the 2002 champion wrapped up the tiebreak 7-2 with a thunderbolt ace -- his 14th of the contest.
Coming off Court One, Hewitt immediately turned his thoughts to his next match with the Swiss world number one.
"You always want to test your game against the best players and he's owned this place for five years and I won here six years ago, so it will be a good match," said the 27-year-old, who has lost to Federer 11 times in a row since 2003.
Bolelli had upstaged 15th seed Fernando Gonzalez in the previous round with some inspired tennis but on Friday he was never really allowed to get into his groove.
Twelve months ago Hewitt had allowed Bolelli to bag only five games when the duo had met in the second round at the All England Club.
For two sets, it seemed as if the world number 46 would struggle to match even that performance as he failed to make any impact on Court One.
It took Bolelli 10 minutes to unleash his first winning shot of the match, an ace in the fourth game but by then Hewitt had already set the pace by storming to a 3-1 lead.
Scampering around court, Hewitt time and again drilled screeching winners past Bolelli's outstretched racket and lost only four points on serve in the opening set which flashed by in 28 minutes.
Bolelli's fortunes failed to improve over the next 30 minutes and he seemed to be waving the white flag when he surrendered the second set with forehand into the net.
With his eye on the last 16 encounter with Federer, Hewitt was eager to get out back into the locker room as quickly as possible but Bolelli suddenly came to life.
At 5-4, 30-40 down in the third, he produced a screaming service winner to deny Hewitt victory and pegged back the Adelaide fighter to force him into a tiebreak.
But Hewitt, who is still nursing a painful hip, finished the match with bullet of a delivery.
"I executed everything I had in the game plan so I'm glad to get this win in straight sets," said Hewitt.
"I was ready for tough match today and I'll be ready for a tough match come Monday."