MELBOURNE, Australia -- Lleyton Hewitt of Australia took the court Saturday night in third-round action at the Australian Open, but Marat Safin did not even get that far.

Hewitt, the top seed here and reigning Wimbledon champion, reached the round of 16 for the seventh time in his last eight Grand Slam events with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-0 win over unseeded Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic.

Men's No. 1 Lleyton Hewitt started slowly, dropping the first two games, and Stepanek, ranked No. 61, had four break points before Hewitt dropped serve in an eight-minute opening game.

"I started a bit rusty tonight and was able to get better and better as it went on,'' Hewitt said. "We're only in the third round, so you don't want to play your best tennis yet.''

Hewitt, who lost in the first round last year while recovering from chickenpox, said it was a big relief to make the second week at Melbourne Park.

Hewitt's next opponent is Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui, seeded 18th and a U.S. Open quarterfinalist last year, who beat Spaniard Feliciano Lopez 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (8).

Marat Safin, the men's runner-up last year, withdrew from his third-round match against Germany's Rainer Schuettler because of a wrist injury. The third-seeded Safin, who came into the week with a shoulder problem, said his left wrist was too swollen to play.

"I couldn't hold the racket,'' Safin said.

Schuettler will play James Blake, the 23rd-seeded American who advanced beyond the third round for the first time in a major with a 6-3, 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Spain's Alberto Martin.

"I had a little jitters at the beginning. Once I got through that, it was great,'' said Blake, who hit nearly twice as many winners as his opponent.

In other matches, sixth-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland beat Sweden's Andreas Vinciguerra 6-3, 6-4, 6-2, 25th-seeded Mikhail Youzhny of Russia upset seventh-seeded Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and ninth-seeded American Andy Roddick beat Spain's Fernando Vicente 6-2, 6-3, 6-2.

The 20-year-old Roddick will face Youzhny in the fourth round.

"He won the Davis Cup for Russia, so nothing is going to faze him at the moment,'' said Roddick, who has lost twice to Youzhny. "I think I'm playing better tennis than the times I've played him before.''

Federer will face Wimbledon finalist David Nalbandian, the 10th-seeded Argentine who led No. 20 Xavier Malisse 4-6, 6-2, 6-0, 3-0 when the Belgian player retired because of fatigue.

"I think Roger is a great player, but I know him from juniors. From a long time ago I beat him two times,'' Nalbandian. "I think it's going to be a tough match, but I have a strong chance.''

Federer's looking for a little payback against Nalbandian.

"He beat me the last two times -- one at home in Basel, that was tough for me. I really should have won that match," Federer said. "I'm really looking forward to taking my revenge against him. I know it will be tough because he has got a great backhand, he returns really well."

Information from SportsTicker, The Associated Press and Reuters was used in this report.