World No 2 Roger Federer ruined the party at the Australian Open in Melbourne Monday by ending crowd favourite Lleyton Hewitt's dream of scoring a first home title triumph in 28 years.

With Melbourne Park basking in a festive atmosphere as Australia celebrated its national day holiday, Federer overpowered Hewitt 4-6, 6-3, 6-0, 6-4 to the dismay of a partisan crowd crammed into the Rod Laver Arena.

Not even several renditions of Australia's national anthem from gold-shirted fans could inspire 15th seed Hewitt, who was powerless as Federer stepped up several gears and fired off a succession of majestic winners.

Victory was doubly satisfying for Wimbledon champion Federer, who had been beaten by Hewitt at the same venue in a classic five-setter during Switzerland's Davis Cup semi-final defeat to Australia last September.

"When I heard that Monday was Australia Day I wasn't too happy because I knew it was going to be even worse than everything I had expected, but the crowd and the atmosphere was great," Federer said.

"Every time we've played we've had great matches and I always felt one of these matches could go easy one or the other way, but this match was another real battle."

The victory takes 22-year-old Federer into the last eight here for the first time in five attempts and gives him a legitimate shot of coming through the bottom half of the draw into Sunday's final.

For Hewitt, it was yet another Australian Open setback. He has never been beyond the fourth round.

"I felt I had a lot of chances out there tonight, a lot of break points especially early in the second set and I wasn't able to capitalize," Hewitt said. "I could have easily been up a set and a break."

Federer will now face Argentina's David Nalbandian in the quarter-finals.

Eighth seed Nalbandian defeated compatriot Guillermo Canas 6-4, 6-2, 6-1 in an all-Argentina fourth round match.

Hewitt, who had been bidding to become the first Australian winner of the Open since 1976, was the last Australian left in the men's singles draw after Morocco's Hicham Arazi stunned Mark Philippoussis earlier yesterday.

Philippoussis, seeded 10, had been fancied to reach the semi-finals but instead was ruthlessly dismantled 6-2, 6-2, 6-4 by Arazi, whose skillful performance belied a world ranking of 51.

Arazi will now play world No 3 and French Open champion Juan Carlos Ferrero in tomorrow's quarter-finals.

Ferrero, suffering from a thigh strain, played through the pain barrier to equal his best-ever Australian Open performance in beating Romanian world No 65 Andrei Pavel 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2.

In the women's draw, Kim Clijsters led the top women's seeds into the quarter-finals by downing Italy's Silvia Farina Elia 6-3, 6-3.

Clijsters victory was overshadowed by a spectacular tantrum involving Russian sixth seed Anastasia Myskina, who was furious with trainer Jens Gerlach during a battling 6-7 (3/7), 6-2, 6-2 victory over Chanda Rubin.

The flashpoint occurred during the first set, when the talented 22-year-old from Moscow visibly lost her cool and became increasingly animated, gesturing towards the stand.

But Myskina regained her composure and won the next two sets easily to set up a quarter-final meeting with Clijsters.

Myskina said she had apologized to Gerlach after explaining her outburst.

"I just said that he was kind of like a wall, that he has to show me something, show some emotions to me. He has to give me something back," said Myskina, adding there were no hard feelings between the two.

"He knows me. He knows that I don't really mean it. He knows me really well and that I'm really emotional. But it's only on the court.

"You know, I am the way I am. If nobody likes me the way I am, I'm sorry. But I think, you know, I'm really nice. Too nice."

Age triumphed over youth in the opening fourth round women's match of the day, with French schoolgirl Tatiana Golovin being taught a lesson by veteran Lisa Raymond.

Raymond, who played in the 1989 US Open just a year after Golovin was born, booked her place in the quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-2, 6-0 victory.

The 30-year-old American 25th seed, who had advanced to the last 16 after pulling off an upset victory over third seed Venus Williams, overwhelmed Golovin in 42 minutes.

Golovin, a wildcard entrant ranked 354th in the world who only turned 16 on Sunday, never looked capable of repeating her giant-killing feats of the previous two rounds when she eliminated seeded opponents.

Raymond, a doubles specialist who has only reached the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam event once before in 44 attempts spanning 15 years, plays Switzerland's Patty Schnyder in the last eight. Schnyder, seeded 22, defeated Nathalie Dechy of France, the 29th seed, 6-2, 6-4.

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