Canberra: Following Bernard Tomic's early win on Friday, Swiss tennis star Roger Federer defeated Lleyton Hewitt to level the Davis Cup World Group play-off tie between Australia and Switzerland at 1-1.
Australian rising star Tomic started the tie in style with a four-set win over Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3.
But class prevailed in the second singles match as Federer fought his way back to claim a 5-7, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, 6-3 victory over Hewitt at the Royal Sydney Club of Australia.
The 16-time grand slam champion, Federer, who only arrived in Sydney on Wednesday after his US Open semi-final defeat to Novak Djokovic, admitted being tired and off his game.
"I all of a sudden realised this was much more difficult than I expected," Federer was quoted as saying by Xinhua.
"I thought it was going to be tough but once on court I was a bit afraid of hitting my shots because of all the bad bounces out on this grass court and I was just very happy to see that I got so much better as the match went on."
"It is nice to see Lleyton, who is the same age, still playing as well."
Meanwhile, Tomic said at first he was nervous playing against Wawrinka when Federer was watching the match.
"Having Roger watch you is difficult. It is a bit difficult when you look up to your idol... but it is a good thing I got the team off to a good start," he said.
Saturday's doubles will see Hewitt and Chris Guccione taking on Federer and Wawrinka.
The winner of the tie progresses to the World Group in 2012, while the loser will play zonal qualifiers in a bid to get back to the top-tier competition in 2013.
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