Lleyton Hewitt thanked his fans for pulling him through a tough five-setter against Radek Stepanek.

The Australian was two sets down and struggling with a thigh problem but he turned things around at the start of the third set and did not look back, eventually winning 4-6 2-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.

The 'Fanatics' were out in force again supporting Hewitt, and were told to tone it down by stewards on a couple of occasions.

The 2002 champion, though, is grateful for their support and believes the atmosphere is good for the tournament.

Hewitt said: "They've been great, they've been fantastic. I draw a lot of emotion and energy from those guys out there.

"The rest of the crowd as well seemed to be all going for me. It's been nice playing Court Two the last couple of matches. It's been a good arena to play at.

"Especially in today's match, when you've got to dig deep, try to find a way out of it, you know they're going to be there for the long haul."

He added: "I've played in a lot more hostile places than here. I think they've been great. It's been a good atmosphere.

"For an opponent I'm sure they're not thrilled about it going against them. But, then again, they're not in their face either."

Hewitt, who missed the latter part of last season following hip surgery, had been thrilled with his physical condition during the opening week and vowed not to let the thigh problem affect him.

He said: "It was just a bit of a strain midway through the first set. It was causing me a couple of issues out there.

"I wasn't quite able to move the way that I would have liked early on in the match. It was frustrating through the second set.

"There's still a little bit of pain. I had to get more treatment during the rain delay as well. I just tried to give myself as much chance as possible to go out there and compete.

"Hopefully I didn't do any more damage to it from that first twinge when I first felt it. We can work on it today and tomorrow. I'm sure I'll be very close to 100% by Wednesday."

Stepanek had been a doubt before the start of the match with a knee injury, and he needed treatment during the fourth set.

Hewitt, though, put his revival down to an improvement in both his own serving and returning.

The 28-year-old, one of two unseeded players in the men's last eight along with Juan Carlos Ferrero, said: "I was able to start dictating play a little bit more and put a bit more pressure on his forehand.

"He was hitting his backhand extremely well. He was attacking both sides off it and returning well if I missed my first serve.

"My serve definitely picked up from then on in, though. I was struggling a little bit pushing off with my left leg on the serve.

"It was tough because I was trying to block out my leg more than anything and focus on not looking at the big picture.

"I was more trying to get the third set under my belt. I really wanted to try to get up a break.

"Even though I lost the first two sets, I felt like I had chances on his service games and I was going to have a lot of chances on his service games.

"I just wasn't quite returning the way I would have liked the first two sets.

"I felt like if I could start getting into his service games, and put pressure on that, then hopefully my whole game could pick up. And that's what started happening."