Federer humbles Hewitt

All the action as Roger Federer beats Lleyton Hewitt in the semi-final of the Hamburg Masters.
Result: Federer 6-0 6-4 Hewitt

Federer/Hewitt stats

1st serve % : 68%/69%
Aces : 5/1
DF : 0/2
W : 22 /4
UE : 15/19
BPW : 5/9 / 1/1

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Second set

Federer 6-0 6-4 Hewitt
The previous game is just a blip as Federer races to three match points with three forehand winners. A weak backhand into the net seals Hewitt's fate.

Federer 6-0 5-4 Hewitt
Hewitt finally breaks the Federer serve. After saving a match point, the Australian hangs on in a long rally and Federer finally sends a backhand long.

Federer 6-0 5-3 Hewitt
Federer's level dips briefly with four mistakes on the backhand side which give Hewitt faint hope of survival.

Federer 6-0 5-2 Hewitt
The Federer serve continues to look unbreakable and he moves to within a game of victory without losing a point.

Federer 6-0 4-2 Hewitt
A string of booming groundstrokes gives Federer three break points. The world number one clinches the game with a brilliant forehand pass.

Federer 6-0 3-2 Hewitt
Federer sends down two aces to race to 40-15, and a misplaced Hewitt forehand gives him the game in double-quick time.

Federer 6-0 2-2 Hewitt
Hewitt produces his best game so far, forcing Federer into some rare errors and closing it out to love.

Federer 6-0 2-1 Hewitt
Federer is again untroubled and an unreturnable serve puts him back ahead in the set.

Federer 6-0 1-1 Hewitt
Hewitt wins a brilliant point with superb half-volley at deuce and a forehand down the line finally puts him on the scoreboard.

Federer 6-0 1-0 Hewitt
Hewitt strikes a rare blow with a backhand winner but it is his only point as Federer remains in cruise control.

First set

Federer 6-0 Hewitt
The unforced errors continue to plague Hewitt and a loose forehand gives Federer two set points. A dropshot from the Swiss clinches the first of them.

Federer 5-0 Hewitt
Federer's power is stopping Hewitt getting any foothold in the match and the Australian's agony continues as he sees a forehand called just out.

Federer 4-0 Hewitt
Federer maintains the pressure on the Hewitt serve and finally converts a third break point when the Australian sends a backhand long.

Federer 3-0 Hewitt
Federer effortlessly extends his lead with a dominant service game which includes a superb deep backhand winner.

Federer 2-0 Hewitt
Federer makes an early breakthrough as he pressures Hewitt into giving up two break points and seals the game with a crosscourt forehand winner.

Federer 1-0 Hewitt
An easy opener for Federer as Hewitt fails to get into his stride and the world number one wins it to love.

Federer crushes Hewitt
From correspondents in Hamburg
May 16, 2004

WORLD No.1 Roger Federer gave another indication of his burgeoning clay court form when he beat Lleyton Hewitt to reach the final of the fifth Masters Series of the year in Hamburg overnight.

Federer's 6-0, 6-4 victory threatened at one stage to be even more overwhelming, and the greater weight of his ground strokes as well as his wider range of damaging weapons left former world No.1 Hewitt with few answers.

"It would have been difficult to play better. It was a great start to the match, and that's what I have wanted all tournament," said Switzerland's Federer.

"I can't complain about a thing in the first set and the result was also good. Because Lleyton wasn't playing too bad; just maybe once in a while he gave me a point or two.

"But when you get to the second set everything starts from zero, and you know how quickly things can turn around, especially a player like him against whom I have had a difficult experience in the Davis Cup. You have that in your mind a little bit. I thought he could turn it around even when he was down 5-3," added the Wimbledon and Australian Open champion.

Federer started like the proverbial express. He held his first service game before some of the spectators had taken their seats, and broke Hewitt to 15 immediately, finishing with a trademark inside out forehand winner.

He then held to love and had Hewitt, so often the player with bustling aggressive body language, looking strangely uncertain.

It was this which contributed to Hewitt's next loss of serve. At 30-all he delivered a solid first serve which elicited a return short enough to have a chance of putting the ball away, only for him to pull his forehand drive into the tramlines.

Hewitt saved that break point with a second service ace which skidded of the (line) tape and underneath Federer's racket, but that piece of luck offered only temporary reprieve.

In heavy conditions Hewitt struggled to hit a penetrating enough ball to keep Federer's swinging blows at bay and in the attempt the Australian's unforced error ratio went up. There were 11 in a first set lasting little more than 20 minutes.

Hewitt avoided further embarrassment when he saved a break point in his opening service game of the second set and won it with the help of a brilliantly scrambled half volley drop-shot under maximum pressure.

His best attempts at keeping out of trouble were usually to tie the rally down in backhand to backhand exchanges, but by now Federer was swinging so freely that he was becoming even more dangerous.

Sure enough, Federer broke in the fifth game and went on to serve for the match at 5-3. It was then that Hewitt made his one break, creating a few moments when it seemed he might get back into the match against all the odds.

He saved one match point by taking a leaf out of Federer's book with an inside out forehand attack. Then he reached break point when Federer clipped the net tape with his forehand approach shot and saw the ball jump, a little unluckily, wide.

Hewitt converted at once by rallying backhand to backhand and suddenly switching direction to the Federer forehand, usually a great danger area, and being rewarded with a mistake.

But Federer made him pay immediately. He returned serve four times, won three points with destructive forehands, and completed the match when Hewitt, preferring to take his fate into his own hands, risked an increase in the pace of his ground stroke attack and found the net.

"I don't think many guys would have matched Roger playing like that, especially in the first set," said Hewitt philosophically. "But it's still been a good week for me - I'm nearer to where I want to be for the French Open."

But asked if the distractions of the past 18 months were behind him now, Hewitt bristled and said: "What distractions? There have been no distractions. It's just the crap that you guys write."

When it was suggested that a legal action against the ATP and a high profile relationship with Kim Clijsters might have been distractions, the 2001 US Open champion and 2002 Wimbledon champion snapped: "You had better look at the Grand Slam leader board."

Federer will play in the final the defending champion Guillermo Coria, giving the tournament the climax it most wanted.

The second-seeded Argentine player extended his unbeaten run on clay courts to 31 when he beat the unseeded Croatian Ivan Ljubicic with yet another display of lively movement and steadily aggressive, if lightweight, ground strokes.

Coria's 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 success required him to work far harder than Federer and to go the full distance for the third time this week.

Agence France-Presse


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Hewitt loses, slams media
May 16, 2004 - 4:07PM

Lleyton Hewitt left with a serve for a media questioner but positive feelings for his French Open campaign after being blown out of the Hamburg Masters semi-finals within an hour by Roger Federer.

Hewitt went into the match with a 7-3 record against the world No.1 but their first meeting on clay provided a resounding 6-0 6-4 win for the top seed.

Wimbledon and Australian Open champion Federer was dazzling in the first set as he made just five unforced errors and took it in 20 minutes.

The Australian showed fight by breaking back to get to 4-5 in the second set but Federer then broke Hewitt's serve to love to move into the final against defending champion Guillermo Coria.

Second seed Coria of Argentina rallied to beat Ivan Ljubicic 3-6 6-1 6-4 and looms as the man to beat at the French Open as he improved to 31-0 on clay since the 2003 semifinals at Roland Garros.

Hewitt acknowledged Federer was just too good on the day but was pleased to get some solid clay matches behind him before the French Open starts in nine days.

"I don't think many guys would have matched Roger playing like that, especially in the first set," said Hewitt. "But it's still been a good week for me - I'm nearer to where I want to be for the French Open."

"And in Dusseldorf (World Team Cup) next week I'll get another few matches. Hopefully, I'll get my game to where I would like it to be in about a week's time."

Hewitt bristled when asked by a reporter if he felt distractions of the past 18 months were behind him now.

"What distractions? There have been no distractions. It's just the crap that you guys write."

When it was suggested that a legal action against the ATP and his high profile relationship with fiancee Kim Clijsters might have been distractions, the 2001 US Open champion and 2002 Wimbledon champion snapped: "You had better look at the Grand Slam leader board."

Federer admitted he'd been wary of Hewitt throughout because the Australian's incredible rally to beat him from two sets and 3-5 down in the 2003 Davis Cup semi-final in Melbourne lingered in his mind.

"It would have been difficult to play better. It was a great start to the match," said Federer.

"But when you get to the second set everything starts from zero, and you know how quickly things can turn around, especially a player like him against whom I have had a difficult experience in the Davis Cup. You have that in your mind a little bit."

Federer's final clash with Coria gives the tournament the climax it most wanted.

 

Quarters

Federer will now meet No. 17 seed Lleyton Hewitt after the Australian booked his place in the semifinals for the second time in Hamburg (2001) with a 6-4, 6-3 victory over Austrian Jurgen Melzer. Hewitt, chasing his third title of the season (Sydney, Rotterdam), saved six of seven break points during the 1-hour, 12-minute match, and broke Melzer's serve to lead 2-1 and 5-4 in the opening set. In the second, Hewitt broke again in the third game and sealed victory with his fourth break to book his place against Federer.
 

3rd rd

No. 17 Lleyton Hewitt held off Brazilian Flavio Saretta 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 to advance to the quarterfinals (or better) for the second time. Hewitt led 5-1 in the final set before Saretta rallied back, but the Aussie served out at 5-4.
Jurgen Melzer of Austria, one of four unseeded quarterfinalists, advanced to his first ATP Masters Series quarterfinal with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Marat Safin, who is 5th in the INDESIT ATP 2004 Race.

 

Rd 2 defeated Tommy Haas 6-4 7-5

"No. 17 Lleyton Hewitt moved through to the third round for the fourth consecutive year after coming back from 1-5 down in the second set before defeating local favorite Tommy Haas 6-4, 7-5. After taking the first set in 38 minutes, having let a 5-1 lead almost slip himself, the Australian then saved six set points in the second set, including three in the seventh game. After Hewitt evened the set at 5-5, Haas double faulted for the eighth time in the match to hand the Australian a break, and the former two-time World No. 1 held at love to book a third round meeting against Brazilian Flavio Saretta. "