Federer Doing It For The Golden Oldies

`Roger is doing all right for our generation. We`ll just hang on to him at the moment,` former world number one Hewitt said.

Roger Federer will carry the hopes of the older generation when he faces Paul-Henri Mathieu in the third round of the French Open on Saturday.

With 27-year-old Federer the only player among the world's top four to be aged over 22, Australian Lleyton Hewitt said he expected the Swiss to do the golden oldies proud at this year's claycourt grand slam.

"Roger is doing all right for our generation. We'll just hang on to him at the moment," former world number one Hewitt, 28, told reporters after being smothered by Rafael Nadal in the third round on Friday.

Federer's potential semi-final opponent Novak Djokovic and Germany's Philipp Kohlschreiber will be back in action for a third day running when face each other on court one.

Their second round matches spanned two days after bad light stopped play on Thursday.

Sixth seed Andy Roddick, the last American man to win a major at the U.S. Open in 2003, is eyeing a place in the last 16 here for the first time but will have to douse the cheers of a partisan crowd as he will be up against Frenchman Marc Gicquel.

Twenty four hours after big sister Venus Williams became the highest seed to exit the tournament, former champion and second seed Serena will be aiming to restore family pride by dispatching Spanish challenger Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez.

Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva will open Centre Court proceedings against Australian Samantha Stosur and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic should easily overcome the test provided by Jarmila Groth.