Lleyton Hewitt will be out to prove even a cool cat like Roger Federer only has nine lives when the Thailand Open gets underway in Bangkok on Monday.

The late withdrawal of injured Russian Marat Safin has elevated Hewitt to second seed in the 32-man draw, ensuring Australia's former world No.1 doesn't cross paths with Federer until the final at the $US525,000 ($A690,000) event.

Hewitt has succumbed to his Swiss nemesis the last nine times they've met but, playing with considerably more aggression, he pushed Federer hard in their most recent encounter, a high-quality four-set semi-final at the US Open this month.

Contesting only his 10th tournament of 2005 and resuming after a two-week break following his Flushing Meadows campaign, Hewitt opens against Lukas Dlouhy, a little-known Czech ranked 87th in the world.

His first real test is likely to be against local hero Paradorn Srichaphan in the quarter-finals but, on form, it seems almost inevitable he will qualify for another final against Federer.

Dismissing his illness-enforced first-round withdrawal in Montreal this year, it's been 14 months since Hewitt failed to reach at least the quarter-finals of a tour event.

And, in a commendably consistent 2005, the world No.5's only eight defeats have come against class rivals Andy Roddick, David Nalbandian, Safin, big-serving pair Taylor Dent and Ivo Karlovic and Federer on three occasions.

Federer, chasing his 11th title of an another amazing season, faces Brazilian Marcos Daniel and is in the same section of the draw as Mark Philippoussis.

Australia's fallen star needed his 10th wildcard of a depressing season to make the main draw and will need to conjure up some old magic to get past Luxembourg's Gilles Muller in the first round.

Muller is the former world No.1 junior who stunned Roddick in the first round of the US Open.

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