Australian veteran Lleyton Hewitt is out of the US Open after suffering a sapping five-set fourth-round loss to Russian 21st seed Mikhail Youzhny.

Hewitt was twice within sight of his first quarter-final since 2006 before falling 6-3 3-6 6-7 (3-7) 6-4 7-5 in a tension-filled four-hour cliffhanger at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday.

The 2001 champion will long rue squandering a two-sets-to-one advantage and 4-1 and 5-2 leads in the fourth and fifth sets of a draining encounter played out in the hottest part of the day in New York.

In a seesawing contest, Hewitt trailed by a set and a service break before wrestling control only to let the match – and a likely quarter-final showdown with world No.1 Novak Djokovic – slip away.