Marcos Baghdatis retired from his match against Lleyton Hewitt due to injury to gift the Australian a free pass to the fourth round at Melbourne Park.
Baghdatis and Hewitt played an epic five-set match that finished after four in the morning in 2008, the latest-finishing match in the tournament's history, but hopes of a similar hard-fought contest were snuffed out when the Cypriot walked off when trailing 4-2 in the second set after losing the first 6-love.
Baghdatis, who was attended to by trainers during the break after the first set, had experienced cramping in his five-set second-round win over David Ferrer.
Hewitt will now face world number one and tournament top seed Roger Federer in the fourth round after the Swiss maestro cruised past Albert Montanes of Spain 6-3 6-4 6-4.
