indianwells04art

Argentina's Chela stuns defending champion Hewitt

March 15, 2004

INDIAN WELLS, United States (AFP) - Argentina's Juan Ignacio Chela stunned Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 4-6, 6-1, ousting the two-time defending champion and advancing to the next round of the ATP/WTA Masters Series tournament.

The 24-year-old Chela reached the fourth round for the first time at Indian Wells and ended Hewitt's bid for a record third-straight title at the 4.9 million dollar hard-court event.

"This is one of my greatest victories," said Chela, adding his game plan was to sit back and hit groundstrokes with Hewitt.

"I play better from the baseline. I know Hewitt is good at drawing his opponent to the net and then hitting passing shots."

Chela also halted Hewitt's consecutive match winning streak here at 13.

Hewitt Makes it Lucky 13

March 13

Two-time defending champion Lleyton Hewitt made it lucky 13 as he began his challenge to win a third consecutive title at the Pacific Life Open. The Australian defeated Thomas Johansson 6-2, 6-3 to move through to the third round, where he will meet Juan Ignacio Chela. The 23-year-old has now won his last 13 matches in Indian Wells dating back to his semifinal loss to Andre Agassi in 2001.

“Felt like I moved really well,” said Hewitt. “I was pretty consistent. It was heavy conditions out there. I didn't make a lot of cheap errors. I felt like I hit my groundstrokes pretty well from side to side. I had him moving a lot. I mixed up the pace very well out there tonight.”

Hewitt, who is attempting to capture his third ATP Masters Series shield this week, repeated his wins over Johansson from Rotterdam and Davis Cup earlier this year. “Thomas is a tough player,” said Hewitt. “Out of all the non-seeded players, he'd have to be one of the toughest, I think. For me to come through in that way, we had a tough match in Rotterdam a couple of weeks ago, as well, so that probably helped me in good stead a little bit. I played better I think today than I did in Rotterdam a couple weeks ago against him.”

He added: “These kind of tournaments, you can't really get off to slow starts. Best-of-three sets against the best players in the world right from the word "go." These are tough tournaments to win.”

March 13
Sportal (www.sportal.com.au)

Aussies Lleyton Hewitt and Wayne Arthurs are through to the third round of the Pacific Life Open at Indian Wells.

But there was no such luck for Mark Philippoussis, who was sent crashing packing by Mikhail Youzhny 7-6 (7-5) 7-5.

Hewitt, seeded eighth in the tournament, had no trouble disposing of 2002 Australian Open champion Thomas Johansson 6-2 6-3 in a little under 80 minutes.

The former world number one punished the Swede’s shaky serve in the first set, creating seven break-point opportunities and capitalising on three of them as Johansson won just 16 percent of points on his second serve.

Hewitt faced a slightly tougher challenge in the second set, but Johansson gave the 23-year-old too many looks at his second serve, as his first service fell to 39 percent.

The result was another three breaks of serve and Hewiit now advances to a clash with Juan Ignacio Chela who beat Spanish veteran Alberto Martin 5-7 6-2 6-0.

Arthurs was in brilliant serving form as he knocked out 2003 Australian Open finalist Rainer Schuettler 6-1 7-6 (7-3).

The left-hander fired down 12 aces and only one double fault, leaving the German with little hope of breaking his serve. Arthurs only conceded three break-points in the match, and won all of them.

The Australian dominated the first set, taking two breaks before a much tougher second set, were neither player could affect a service break, but Arthurs was able to win the tie-breaker to set up a clash with Jonas Bjorkman, who trashed Harel Levy 6-1 6-3.

Andre Agassi took just over an hour to beat David Sanchez 6-2 6-2 and will now face Dominik Hrbaty in the next round.

It was a day of upsets with as Taylor Dent overcame his recent form slump to oust 15th-seed Gustavo Kuerten, Tommy Haas’s comeback continued with an easy win over 10th seed Paradorn Srichaphan, James Blake ousted 26th-seed Robby Ginepri, Tommy Robredo (17) was shocked by compatriot Alex Corretja, Peruvian Luis Horna beat Feliciano Lopez (20) and Martin Verkerk (17) was sent on his way by Nicolas Lappentti.

But seeds Tim Henman (9) and Albert Costa (23) did progress to the third round.

Men's Singles - Second Round
(5)A Agassi (USA) bt D Sanchez (ESP) 6-2 6-2
W Arthurs (AUS)(6)R Schuettler (GER) 6-1 7-6(7-3)
(8)L Hewitt (AUS) bt T Johansson (SWE) 6-2 6-3
(9)T Henman (GBR) bt (Q)S Larose (CAN) 6-3 6-2
(WC)T Haas (GER) bt (10)P Srichaphan (THA) 6-1 6-2
M Youzhny (RUS) bt (12)M Philippoussis (AUS) 7-6(7-5) 7-5
T Dent (USA) bt (15)G Kuerten (BRA) 6-4 7-5
N Lapentti (ECU) bt (17)M Verkerk (NED) 7-5 6-4
(WC)A Corretja (ESP) bt (19)T Robredo (ESP) 6-1 6-4
L Horna (PER) bt (20)F Lopez (ESP) 6-3 7-6(7-3)
(23)A Costa (ESP) bt G Canas (ARG) 7-5 6-7(3-7) 6-4
J Blake (USA) bt (26)R Ginepri (USA) 6-4 7-5
(28)J Bjorkman (SWE) bt (Q)H Levy (ISR) 6-1 6-3
(31)BT Hrbaty (SVK) bt X Malisse (BEL) 6-4 6-3
(32)J Chela (ARG) bt A Martin (ESP) 5-7 6-2 6-0
G Gaudio (ARG) bt W Ferreira (RSA) 6-2 7-5

Hewitt at Home in Garden

http://www.pacificlifeopen.com/10/news/news3434_rx.asp

Defending men’s champion Lleyton Hewitt arrives in Indian Wells attempting to become the first player to win the Pacific Life Open three years running. The Australian, who has won his last 12 matches at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden dating back to a semifinal loss to Andre Agassi in 2002, won the Stella Artois Championships at Queen’s Club, London three years in a row from 2000.

Talking about repeating the feat in Indian Wells, a place he’s always enjoyed coming to, Hewitt said: “I’ll try my best. It’s tough to win these tournaments any time. It’s a positive coming to places you play well and have had good results at in the past.

“I reached the semis in 2001 and lost to Agassi in a very tight match the year before I won it for the first time. For some reason, I’ve played extremely well out here on the center court. It’s a wonderful stadium and it’s got to be a positive to come back to places you enjoy playing at. It’s a very relaxed tournament with the feel of a Grand Slam with the quality of players in the draw.”

Hewitt, who has won two titles in 2004 in Sydney and Rotterdam, has successfully defended a title five times during his career, including at the Tennis Masters Cup having won the season-ending championships in 2001 and ’02. While the former US Open and Wimbledon champion is used to the big occasions, he is not putting any extra pressure on himself this time around.

“My record of defending titles is not too bad, Queen’s, Sydney, here are probably the ones that stand out,” said Hewitt. “This is one of my favorite tournaments of the year. I feel very relaxed, I’ve always played well here. I don’t know how to explain it, but I don’t feel any extra pressure on myself when I go out there to play tournaments when I’m defending titles or points.

“I was very lucky to get past Younes El Aynaoui in the first round last year, coming back from match points down before surviving that and going on to win the tournament. But I don’t feel any extra pressure when I’m defending titles at tournaments.”

Hewitt, who is seeded No. 8 this year, could meet current INDESIT ATP 2004 Race leader Roger Federer in the quarterfinals in a repeat of their fourth round match at the Australian Open, where Federer won that match and went on to win the tournament.

“Roger’s definitely playing with a lot of confidence,” said Hewitt. “But the last time we played in Australia, I played really well in the first set and a half, and always felt like I had chances in the fourth. I probably felt like I was the better player in that set.

“I’ve had a good year so far, I’m hitting the ball well and looking forward to doing well here.”

LLEYTIN HEWITT will have a tougher time this year as he seeks an unprecedented third straight Indian Wells title at the $2.8 million ATP Masters Series event.

Hewitt, who is 14-1 in 2004, faces 19 of the top 20 players in an expanded men's draw.

The 96-player draw was made today and includes world No. 1 Roger Federer (16-1) of Switzerland, Americans Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, 2003 runner-up Gustavo Kuerten (14-4), Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero (9-4), and Australian Open finalist Marat Safin.

The men's competition, which begins on Saturday (AEDT), has been increased to 96 players from 64 last year.

Hewitt won't face top seed Federer in the final. That's because they both landed in the same side of the draw and could meet as early as the quarter-finals.

There is a chance of a rematch of last year's finalists Kuerten and Hewitt, who are in opposite sides of the draw.

Heat could be a factor as temperatures hit 33 degrees Celsius (90F) on Monday. Mildly cooler weather is expected next week, more in line with the snow-capped mountains in the scenic Palm Springs area.

Interesting first round matchups include: Spanish teenage sensation Rafael Nadal against American Lars Burgsmuller, Indian Wells runner-up in 1993 Wayne Ferreira of South Africa against Czech Igor Andreev, American Todd Martin versus former Wimbledon champ Goran Ivanisevic and Germany's Tommy Haas against Swede Thomas Enqvist.

There could be an early round rematch of last week's Scottsdale final between Germany's Nicolas Kiefer and American Vince Spadea.

The pair will meet in the second round if Kiefer beats world No.72 Flavio Saretta of Brazil as expected.

This is Ivanisevic's 14th appearance at Indian Wells but he has lost in the first round eight times.

Ivanisevic and Martin have played 12 times since their first meeting in 1993 at Wimbledon. Ivanisevic has a 7-5 edge.

Roddick, who suffered an embarrassing defeat last week to Spadea in the Scottsdale semis, is in one of the toughest quarter sections along with Russian Safin, Brit Tim Henman, Rainer Schuettler of Germany, American Jan-Michael Gambill and Kiefer.

Roddick and Gambill could meet in the second round in a rematch of the Scottsdale quarter-finals which was won by hard-serving Roddick 6-7 6-4 6-3.