Mental giant Lleyton Hewitt stared down Andy Roddick to storm into the Australian Open final at Melbourne Park.

Hewitt again won a desperate battle of wills to book his date with destiny with a brilliant 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-1 semi-final win over the biggest server the sport has ever seen.

The world No.3 will be bidding to become the first Australian since Mark Edmondson in 1976 to win his home grand slam when he takes on the might of Russian fourth seed Marat Safin on Sunday night.

For the third straight match, Hewitt required medical treatment for a hip flexor muscle strain, but not even the loss of the first set could stop the 23-year-old from becoming the first local finalist at Melbourne Park since Pat Cash fell in five agonising sets to Mats Wilander in 1988.

Hewitt also had to overcome a shaky start, dropping his opening service game to fall behind 3-0, and was unable to capitalise on seven subsequent break points as Roddick took the first set after 39 minutes with three successive aces.

The American had coughed up two double-faults while serving for the set in an early show of tension but more than atoned with six thunderous aces in the same game to seize the upper hand.

After holding serve to love in the opening game of the second set, Hewitt could only sit back and marvel as Roddick fired down another four straight aces to level at 1-1.

It was the perfect game from the world No.2, increasing his astonishing ace tally to 15 in just five service games and piling the pressure on Hewitt.

But the Australian held firm and, despite failing to convert the only break point of a tight second set, Hewitt took the tiebreak when he induced a backhand error from Roddick.

The American must have been deflated, having banged down 23 aces in two sets yet the scoreboard had the match all square.

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