Rafter reaches final in third consecutive tournament ( defeats Lleyton)

By TERRY KINNEY
Associated Press Writer 
August 11, 2001 


MASON, Ohio (AP) -- Patrick Rafter beat Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-3 in an all-Australian semifinal Saturday in the Tennis Masters Series-Cincinnati. 

Rafter will play the winner of Saturday's late match between top-ranked Gustavo Kuerten and seventh-seeded Tim Henman. 

Rafter and Hewitt had faced off only twice before, both in 1999, and Hewitt had won both matches. 

This time, Hewitt could not handle Rafter's pressure tactics and superior shot placement. 

``He's probably playing the best tennis he's ever played,'' Hewitt said. ``He's playing maybe as good as anyone in the world right now. 

``Once he's got his serve going, he's very tough to break out there. I regard my return of serve as one of the best in the world, and I couldn't get that much on it today.'' 

Both players had reason to be weary. Each won three-set, nearly three-hour matches Friday. Hewitt was scheduled to play a doubles match after that but defaulted, saying he had an upper respiratory infection. 

Rafter said that must have been a factor. 

``Lleyton played an ordinary game and gift-wrapped it for me,'' Rafter said. ``I was trying to put him under pressure and I was trying to force the errors, and he did give me some cheap ones. 

``But Lleyton kept fighting and almost got an opportunity to get in the match. And you don't want to give someone like him the opportunity.'' 

Although the air remained heavy, the temperature Saturday stayed in the 80s, about 10 degrees cooler than earlier in the week. Still, the 28-year-old Rafter said he had trouble getting started. 

``I play a lot of practice sets against Lleyton and I never get off to a good start in a practice set. So I thought of it like that,'' Rafter said. 

``As the match progressed, Lleyton put on a pretty bad game to hand it back to me, and from then on I played really well and put the pressure on him and kept it on.'' 

The 20-year-old Hewitt broke Rafter in game three, inducing Rafter to hit game point into the net. Rafter got back on serve in the eighth game when Hewitt staved off two break points before double faulting twice to square the set 4-4. 

Rafter held his serve, then won the set when he hit a blistering shot down the line and then induced Hewitt to hit long -- a call that Hewitt disputed. 

The second set proceeded routinely until the fourth game when Hewitt was broken, hitting long twice and into the net twice. Rafter served out the next game with an ace to make it 4-1, and both players held serve the rest of the way. 

Hewitt has won three ATP Tour events this year, but has lost four times in the semifinals of the more prestigious Tennis Masters Series. 

Rafter has always played well in Cincinnati, where he was the winner in 1998 and runner-up to Pete Sampras in 1999. He did not play last year because of a shoulder injury. 

Rafter has lost in the finals of his past two tournaments, at Wimbledon in July and then last week in Montreal. He has talked of taking a break of several months and says his success this week has not changed his thinking. 

``I had a good week last week, and it didn't change,'' Rafter said. 

Australians advance to second round in Cincinnati
By Sandra Harwitt

 
MASON, Ohio, Aug 7 (Reuters) - It was a good day for Australia at the Tennis
Masters Series-Cincinnati on Tuesday when fifth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt and
eighth-seeded Patrick Rafter won their first round matches.

Rafter ignored the sweltering heat and the fact that he knew little about the
game of Spaniard Albert Portas to post a 7-5 6-3 win.

Under the lights, Hewitt managed to break away from Magnus Norman of Sweden
at the end of the first set to earn a 6-4 6-1 victory and move into the
second round.

Rafter has been a runner-up at his last two events coming into Cincinnati.

Playing in his second consecutive Wimbledon final, Rafter lost to Goran
Ivanisevic 9-7 in a classic fifth set and last week in Montreal, he was upset
in the final by Andrei Pavel 7-6 (7-3) 2-6 6-3.

"Frustrated," said Rafter, when asked how hard it was not to emerge as the
winner in those recent finals. "Yes, that can be really annoying but it's
great to be there and to keep yourself in those situations."

According to Rafter, the problem has been that he might not have approached
the finals in the right frame of mind.

"I think mentally you should say, 'this is the one' and 'let's do it,"'
Rafter said. "I just approach it like any other match. Maybe I'm seeing it
wrong, I don't know.

"What I have found is I've gone through a spell of losing quite a few finals
in a row, and then winning quite a few in a row."

Despite having played six matches last week in Montreal, Rafter looked ready
for action on Tuesday against Portas, seemingly unconcerned with the hot,
humid day.

The 24th-ranked Portas held his own for most of the first set in this first
meeting against Rafter, only surrendering his serve in the final game.

Rafter, whose serve was never broken by Portas, won three games in a row from
2-2 in the second set to secure a commanding lead in the 78-minute match.

HEWITT UNLUCKY
While Hewitt holds a 53-13 win-loss record for the season with three titles
to his credit, making him the player with the most wins on the ATP tour this
year, luck has not been on his side recently.

Last week in Montreal, Hewitt fell in the second round to Hicham Arazi and
was a fourth round loser at Wimbledon.

After a slow start against the 23rd-ranked Norman, Hewitt settled into the
task of winning their 79-minute encounter and picking up the pace of his
game.

"It's hard working your way into a tournament," Hewitt said. "After the first
set, I felt I had to try and consolidate it better as the match went on."

After Norman led 4-3 in the first set, Hewitt won the final three games to
take the lead.

After holding serve in the first game of the second set, Norman never won
another game in the match, allowing Hewitt to win 25 of the 33 points played
in the last six games.

Norman ended last year as the number four player in the world, having been an
Australian Open semifinalist and French Open finalist, but he has been unable
to repeat those results this year.

Always touted as a future Grand Slam champion, the 20-year-old Hewitt claims
to ignore the pressure that brings to bear. Having reached his lone Grand
Slam semifinal at the 2000 U.S. Open, Hewitt is not predicting any better
result this year.

"I really block them (the predictions for future success) out," Hewitt said.
"I had a great run at the U.S. Open to make the semis last year.

"Experience is the difference. It's very tough to win seven best-of-five-set
matches at a Grand Slam. That's very tough for an 18 to19-year-old to do."

22:45 08-07-01