Australia's last remaining men's singles representative Nathan Healey bowed out of the Australian Open, beaten in four sets by Russian fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko at Melbourne Park.

Davydenko beat wildcard Healey 6-2 5-7 6-4 7-5 in three hours, with the Australian showing plenty of courage to overcome a nervous start and force his opponent into a tight fourth set despite the Russian outplaying him for much of the match.

After Davydenko ran him ragged in the opening set, Healey steadied in the second and eventually broke Davydenko's serve to level.

The Russian wore Healey down late in the third set to break and close it out, before breaking the Australian again in his opening service game of the fourth set.

But roared on by a football-like crowd at Margaret Court Arena, Healey kept on fighting and eventually broke back to level the set at 4-4, before Davydenko broke him again in the 11th game and served out the match.

This year's Open has been a career-best tournament performance for Healey, originally from Gosford but now based in Melbourne.

In only his second Australian Open, the 25-year-old bettered his second round performance in 2005.

Earlier, fellow Australian Peter Luczak was knocked out of the tournament in four sets by German Tommy Haas.

Haas won 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4.

Davydenko now plays 12th seed Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia in the fourth round.

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