Federer beats Hewitt to successfully defend Indian Wells title
By KEN PETERS, AP Sports Writer
March 20, 2005


INDIAN WELLS, Calif. (AP) -- Roger Federer is all alone at the top -- by several notches.

The world's top-ranked player, looking virtually unstoppable these days, rolled to a straight-sets victory over Lleyton Hewitt on Sunday to successfully defend his Pacific Life Open title.

Federer broke the second-ranked Australian's serve in the opening game and was in control the rest of the way in a 6-2, 6-4, 6-4 victory.

Federer is on a roll that has carried him to 42 wins in his last 43 matches, and seven victories in eight tournaments. He has another streak going in finals, where he's won 17 in a row.

``It's always been my dream to be the best. Now I am and I am enjoying it,'' the 23-year-old Swiss star said. ``The more victories you get, the better you feel.''

Although Hewitt was slowed by sore toes, he gave Federer credit for playing a great match.

``That's sort of the standard that he's put himself in week in and week out,'' Hewitt said. ``It's not like he's doing something freaky, out of the blue.

``If you want to be the best player in the world, you've got to look at where the benchmark is. And he's set it pretty high.''

Hitting powerful, accurate groundstrokes that kept his Australian opponent scrambling back and forth at the baseline, Federer mixed in winning volleys, drop shots and the occasional overhead.

Hewitt said both his big toes began hurting the previous night, when he beat Andy Roddick in a grueling semifinal that went three sets and three tiebreakers.

``I probably wouldn't have won anyway,'' Hewitt said of the final. ``But I wasn't moving 100 percent.''

Federer picked up on that.

``I see very quickly when my opponent has got some sort of a problem,'' he said. ``It definitely changed my setup against him.''

Federer said Hewitt normally would prefer to get him into long rallies, but instead he often went for quick winners this time.

``I got that feeling very quickly, and I just had to really focus on my serve,'' Federer said.

There still was one memorable, 45-shot rally, when Federer was holding break point in the second game of the second set.

Toward the end of the rally, Federer chased down a shot near the net, sprinted back and across the court to return a lob, came up again to hit another shot, then scurried back once again to flick the ball over his shoulder to return another lob.

Hewitt then hit a drop shot just over the net far to Federer's right. It looked to be a winner, but Federer raced forward, stretched as far as he could and hit the ball back. Hewitt went sprawling to his right and volleyed for a winner -- finally.

Both players were out of breath, but smiled broadly. The crowd roared its approval, then gave the players a standing ovation.

Federer said it was ``an unbelievable point.''

``One of my best in my life,'' he said. ``During a final against Lleyton, that was fantastic, and that it didn't finish in an error. We were both tired after that rally.''

Both he and Hewitt were impressed by the standing ovation, saying it was very unusual for a single point in the middle of a game.

``Maybe after you win a Davis Cup final or something, in five sets,'' said Hewitt, who went on to win that game. ``But not normally after a point, especially when neither of you is from America.''

Federer ended the match with his 15th ace -- to Hewitt's four -- and raised his arms high and beamed. He hit the ball into the cheering crowd, with his usual one-handed backhand.

Federer's title was his fourth of the year. He extended his winning streak over Hewitt to seven in a row, including last year's U.S. Open final.

His only loss since he began that tournament was by Marat Safin in this year's Australian Open semifinals. Safin then beat Hewitt in the final.

The 24-year-old Hewitt, who held the No. 1 ranking in 2002 and 2003, lost for just the third time in 21 matches this year.

The men's final was changed to a best-of-five sets format this year, and Federer still needed just an hour and 52 minutes to finish it. A year ago, the best-of-three final lasted only 65 minutes -- Federer beat Tim Henman 6-3, 6-3.

Kim Clijsters beat Lindsay Davenport 6-4, 4-6, 6-2 for the women's title at Indian Wells on Saturday.

semi

Hewitt Edges Roddick in Third Tiebreaker
A baseline shot that just misses is the difference in match. Australian to face Federer in final.

By Bill Dwyre, Times Staff Writer
Los Angeles Times
March 20, 2005

Finally, a flaw was found in Roger Federer. Not his tennis, his prognostications.

Shortly after dismissing Argentine journeyman Guillermo Canas, 6-3, 6-1, in the first men's semifinal of the Pacific Life Open on Saturday, Federer predicted that Andy Roddick would win the second.

"I give a little edge here to Andy," he said. "He's playing on home soil. You never underestimate that."

Nor should you ever underestimate the staying power and shotmaking of Roddick's opponent in that second semifinal, Australian Lleyton Hewitt. He went toe-to-toe with the stronger, bigger-serving Roddick for 2 hours 33 minutes and won, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), by the margin of perhaps half an inch.

Match point of Hewitt's thriller, before a pro-Roddick crowd that had three-quarters of the 16,100-seat Indian Wells Tennis Garden rocking, was a backhand down the line by Roddick that just missed the sideline.

To win this one, Hewitt, who will play top-seeded Federer in today's final, had to withstand 25 aces, 48 winners and survive a break point at 5-5 of the final set that was, as Roddick admitted afterward, effectively a match point. Hewitt, giving up three inches and 30 pounds to the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Roddick, used his court speed, savvy and instinctive timing to stay with Roddick.

From 4-4 of the final tiebreaker, he served a 110-mph winner that Roddick could only foul-tip, then engaged Roddick in another baseline duel that ended when Roddick netted a forehand. On match point, he kicked in a second serve and eventually worked his way to the net, forcing Roddick to try to pass him, and resulting in the backhand that barely missed.

For his part, Roddick was at peace with his effort, even though he has now lost to Hewitt six of seven times, including this year's Australian Open semifinal in which he lost two tiebreakers in a four-set loss.

"I'm disappointed but not upset," Roddick said. "It took the best of Lleyton to beat me. I feel like I can take a lot of positives away from this."

Hewitt was obviously happier afterward but also philosophical.

"Any time you play a third-set tiebreaker, it's a lucky door prize," he said.

"I just felt like I dictated play when I needed to, I hustled when I needed to, I got those extra balls back when I needed to."

That, in a nutshell, is what represents Hewitt's best chance against Federer, who is currently as close to being unbeatable as anybody on the tour has been in years. He did lose that Australian semifinal to Marat Safin of Russia, who then beat Hewitt in the final, but he has lost nothing else this year and will enter today's final with a season record of 25-1.

Hewitt will come in at 18-2 and will still be a huge underdog, even if he didn't have to play longer Saturday, later into the day and a much more physically taxing match. And even if he wasn't facing an early start today and a best-of-five-set final.

"Hewitt will have enough," Roddick said. "The thing is, will he have enough to beat Roger?"

Currently, it is questionable that anybody, rested or not, has enough to beat Federer, who hasn't lost a set here and hasn't even been pushed except by Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who fell in two tiebreakers.

Said Canas, vanquished in just over an hour: "If I play my best, [Federer] will do it better. He is not at the same level as the rest of us."

Hewitt and Federer have played 15 times and Federer leads, 8-7. But Federer has won the last six and has been so dominant recently that he has a 40-1 record going back to the start of last year's U.S. Open.

Sometimes, it sounds as if he's a bit surprised when he is pushed.

"I had to actually fight to actually really play well today," he said. "He was giving me a hard time. I had a few tough couple of games. You know, once I got through that, my rhythm started to pick up and I started to play better. I'm happy the way the match ended. That's very promising for tomorrow."

Not for Hewitt.

Hewitt wins classic over Roddick in three tiebreaks
Aussie to face Federer and streak of 16 final victories

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

FROM THE PACIFIC LIFE OPEN AT INDIAN WELLS – Andy Roddick has improved a fair amount over the past two months, but Lleyton Hewitt has stepped up another notch, too. That's why the Aussie was able to pull out a heart-stopping 7-6(2), 6-7(3), 7-6(4) victory in the Pacific Life Open semis on Saturday. It was Hewitt's sixth win over Roddick in seven attempts, and now he's get to take another crack at the great Roger Federer, who overwhelmed Guillermo Cañas of Argentina 6-3, 6-1, nailing down his 25th win in 26 attempts this year.

It wasn't easy against Roddick, but Hewitt is simply a better big-match player, even if it's by an eyelash. It came down to the thirdset breaker and Roddick was outplayed, even if during most of the two-and-a- half-hour match, he showed off his improved backhand and court sense. He nailed one of his 15 aces to even the third-set tiebreak at 3-3, but then made a terrible mistake, getting caught in no-man's land after a lousy forehand approach and then watching Hewitt bury a backhand at his feet.

Roddick responded by nailing a backhand down the line winner to even the tiebreak at 4-4, but then Hewitt cracked a slice service winner to 5-4, forced Roddick into a forehand error after a series of amazing retrievals, and then courageously rushed the net and saw Roddick barely miss a backhand pass to hand him the victory.

"Any time you play a third-set tiebreaker, it's a lucky door prize a little," Hewitt said. "You have to go out there, try to get off to a pretty good start. We were both able to do that. I just felt like I dictated play when I needed to. I hustled when I needed to; I got those extra balls back when I needed to."

Roddick was pleased with his overall play, mostly because he pushed Hewitt more than he did in the Aussie Open semis. "I can take a lot of positives out of this," said Roddick. "Obviously, it's a loss and it's terrible, but I feel a lot better about this one than I do some others because I feel like I actually played pretty well."

But that doesn't mean that he's going to catch the Aussie or Swiss any time soon. Although he can almost match the Aussie stroke for stroke, he's not as mentally tough. They won't have a true rivalry until Roddick puts a few more W's on the board. Plus, Hewitt spends most of his waking hours trying to get better. He actually registered more forehand winners than Roddick did, an unheard of stat two years ago.

"He hits [forehand] great selectively," Roddick said. "The thing is, he's learned how to hit it all corners, whereas before he definitely had his tendency in the one that he went to a lot. The same with the serve. He's mixing it up a lot more, keeping people off balance. I feel like a lot of people kind of caught up to him and maybe passed him. Now he's closed the gap and figured out new ways to win."

Hewitt talked about how he likes to play the percentages, which is why he so rarely makes mistakes and forces foes into errors. But that hasn't worked against Federer and unless the Swiss has a sad Sunday, Hewitt is going to have to change his tactics, which mean taking more risks.

"You probably do a little bit more than probably other guys, for sure, only because Roger's a stand-out player," Hewitt said. "He takes his opportunities when he gets them. He can dictate play as well as anyone, but he can also defend as well as anyone out there, as well. You probably have to try and dictate play a little bit more against a guy like Rog. It's more the spur of the moment once you're out there, how the match is panning out, the situation, playing the big points. A lot of is really the heat of the moment. If you get a breakpoint, do you sit back and play the percentages a bit more or do you stand up and go for it? You can only tell that once you're out there. It's very hard to say what you've got to do tomorrow in that situation."

Hewitt prevails in tiebreakers

MEN'S SEMIFINALS: He beats Roddick in three lengthy sets and faces Federer today.
11:27 PM PST on Saturday, March 19, 2005

By JIM SHORT / The Press-Enterprise

INDIAN WELLS - Saturday night, after he had lost to Lleyton Hewitt in the Pacific Life Open semifinals, Andy Roddick said Hewitt wouldn't have any trouble summoning up enough energy to play today's final.

"But the thing is," Roddick said, "will he have enough to beat Roger?"

That's Roger Federer, the Swiss star who's been No. 1 in the world for the past 59 weeks. He's back to defend the title he won by beating Tim Henman a year ago, and he'll try to repeat at the expense of Hewitt, who was the champion here in 2002 and 2003.

Federer advanced with a routine 6-3, 6-1 win over Guillermo Canas, then got to watch most of the Hewitt-Roddick match, a 2-hour, 33-minute battle that Hewitt finally won, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4).

It was Hewitt's sixth win in seven tries against Roddick, but the American said he didn't mind this loss as much as he had some of the others because he "played a really good match. I hit the shots I wanted to hit. I just made him come up with the good stuff."

Hewitt agreed. There wasn't much to separate them statistically. Roddick hit 51 winners and 25 aces to 48 and 10 for Hewitt and made 48 unforced errors to 29 for the Australian. Hewitt won only seven points more than the American, who was playing his first semifinal here at the Tennis Garden, and the real difference was three points, in that third-set tiebreaker.

"Any time you play a third-set tiebreaker it's a lucky door prize (situation) a little bit," said Hewitt, who has held the No. 1 ranking for 80 weeks in his career. "You have to go out there and try to get off to a pretty good start. We were both able to do that.

"I just felt like I dictated play when I need to. I hustled when I needed to. I got those extra balls back when I needed to. Under the circumstances, I played a pretty good tiebreak, I think."

Roddick did, too, until it was 4-all. Hewitt took a 5-4 lead with a service winner. On the next point, Roddick said he "hit a forehand about as well as I could have and he somehow got it back," and it was 6-4 Hewitt after Roddick netted a forehand.

A moment later, Roddick hit a backhand passing shot that landed just wide, and it was over. Unlike their most recent meeting, when Hewitt won their Australian Open semifinal with a decisive 6-1 fourth set that Roddick said he felt he mostly gave away, "I know it took the best of Lleyton (to win) tonight."

Whether it took too much out of Hewitt for him to compete on even footing with Federer in today's five-set final remains to be seen. Hewitt said he doesn't understand the need to change from the best-of-three set format that had been used through Saturday, but that aspect of the match "doesn't really worry me one way or the other too much."

Federer does worry him, though. They have met 15 times and Federer holds an 8-7 edge by virtue of winning the six matches they played last year, when he began to separate himself from everyone else in the game. The Swiss right-hander is 25-1 with three titles this season and 99-7 with 14 titles since the start of the 2004 season. He has won 16 consecutive finals.

Roddick said that recently Hewitt hasn't had enough weapons in his arsenal against Federer.

"That's a little bit of a rougher matchup just because of what Roger can do with the ball, the spins and the placement and stuff," Roddick said. "That's something he does extremely well. Right now obviously Roger's the best player in the world, and there's good reason for that."

But Roddick said it would be a mistake to consider the conclusion foregone because of the things Hewitt is able to do, and Hewitt feels the same.

"The guys that I've lost to in the last few finals (Federer twice and Marat Safin in the Australian Open), they've had to play some scary tennis to beat me. If I go out there and put myself on the line every time, then your chances are going to come. In all those matches I've played good tennis. It's taken a (great) player to beat me every time."

Federer fits that description.

"I get a sense that maybe some players have changed a little bit of their games playing against me, or the way they're entering (planning) the matches," Federer said. "They might just not play the way you expect them to play. But most of the times when it gets tough, they return to their basic game, and this is when I can still play my own game.

"I have to change my game, mix it up. Lleyton and Marat are famous for their rhythm, Andy is famous for his serve and I'm famous for mixing it up. I definitely feel like I have more options."

There will be only two options today. Winning, or losing.

Hewitt Holds Out Roddick in Three-Set Thriller

Lleyton Hewitt survived 25 aces to defeat Andy Roddick 7-6(3), 6-7(2), 7-6(4) and set up a blockbuster showdown with defending champion Roger Federer in Sunday's Pacific Life Open final in Indian Wells.

Hewitt and Roddick traded breaks in the second set. They were the only breaks in the match as Hewitt saved eight of nine break points and Roddick saved six of seven.

Hewitt, champion in the desert in 2003 and 2004, improved to 6-1 lifetime against Roddick.

Hewitt said: “Any time you play a third-set tie-breaker, it's a lucky door prize a little bit. You have to go out there, try to get off to a pretty good start. We were both able to do that. I just felt like I dictated play, you know, when I needed to; I hustled when I needed to; I got those extra balls back when I needed to. You know, under the circumstances I played a pretty good tie-break, I think.

“The match as it was, he served extremely well. Had a lot of opportunities to break out there tonight. I think the first four or five early in the third set, he hit aces on every one of them. He really didn't give me too many opportunities on second serves. I don't know what the stats were, but I felt like on most of his second serves, I was, you know, winning the majority of the points out there tonight. I was waiting for my opportunities on the big points, and to his credit he came up with some big serves.”

Roddick said: “I was playing patterns a lot better. You know, I stuck in points a little longer. I thought I was coming to the net. With the exception of the first set, I was very successful doing that. But I kept to it and I tried to really stick to it. I mixed up my serve a little bit better, not just going for the huge one every time.”

“I can take a lot of positives out of this. Obviously, it's a loss and it's terrible, but I feel a lot better about this one than I do some others because I feel like I actually played pretty well.”

quarters

Foot Injury Sidelines Agassi

Andre Agassi has been forced to withdraw from the Pacific Life Open because he has injured his left big toe. Agassi said he has no explanation as to how it happened or what the problem really is. He said he was in pain last night while sleeping and tried to ignore it and get his rest but when he woke up in the morning the toe was double the size and very painful. His movement was restricted.

Agassi will have an MRI done to determine what the problem is. He was due to play Lleyton Hewitt in the quarterfinals. It would have been their ninth match with their head-to-head standing at 4-4. Hewitt receives a walkover into the semis.

Agassi announced his decision to withdraw to fans on center court, who gave the 2001 champion a standing ovation. Agassi had never before given a walkover to an opponent.

"I thought it was possibly an ingrown nail, something I was not trying to wake up to assess it, I was trying to get my rest," said Agassi. "Woke up this morning, it was blown up like a balloon. I can't bend it or move it.
So it's quite painful when I maneuver it manually. It's impossible for me to do anything. It's very disappointing.

"I'm going to go see if it's possibly a tendon that connects around that joint area or just a capsule of the joint. But, you know, all they can say is that that kind of quick inflammation and swelling is a result of your body trying to protect something pretty serious."

rd 4

No. 2 Lleyton Hewitt, the tournament champion in 2001 and 2002, cruised through his match, beating Paul-Henri Mathieu 6-1, 6-0.

Hewitt took just an hour to finish off Mathieu, a Frenchman ranked 96th.

``He's a gutsy competitor. He just made a lot of errors out there today,'' Hewitt said. ``I felt like I was dictating play well from the back of the court.''

rd 3

Rd 2 snippets March 14

Lleyton Hewitt started off very well against Robby Ginepri in the second round of the Pacific Life Open but the American worked his way back into the match before the Australian asserted his dominance in a second set tiebreak for the match 6-2, 7-6.

Hewitt said the windy conditions certainly made things difficult. He also said being off the tour for a few weeks and then played a Davis Cup tie on grass, so to comeback on hardcourt was not easy. Ginepri was also going for his shots in the second set, he had nothing to lozse after getting beaten so handily in the first set.

Hewitt said being late at night the atmosphere was understandbly not quite the same as the recent Australian Open where he was the home country hero.

"I had to try and get myself motivated and hang in there in the second set," said Hewitt. "The wind was a real equaliser. I felt like I was a lot better player but on the scoreboard it didn't quite show."

An earlier Interview dated 10/3/05

LLEYTON HEWITT

On Federer: "The toughest guy at the moment is Federer, there's no doubt about that. Rivalry-wise is not just the two of us so is not really a rivalry obviosuly. We've had good matches in the past and he has had the better of me in the last few times, but we are trying to change that. There's no doubt he is the better player at the moment on all surfaces. He is the toughest guy to play and he deserves to be No. 1, but on any given day there are tough players."

On the top four seeds: "In the last two big events, Tennis Masters Cup in Houston, and the Australian Open, the semifinals were the top four players in the world. Is good for tennis I think, but there is still a lot of good players out there that can close up on any given day. We all know that."

On rivalries: "Agassi - Sampras is one of the greatest rivalries but that was sill going when I went on the tour. That went on for a long time. There are a lot of top players, You had Lend -Edberg, Becker. Chang - Sampras had great rivalries as well. There were a lot of even before that I didn't see a lot of, Connors - McEnroe was one of the greatest, Borg with them as well. There's not only those two players out there, at diffrent times is always dropping and changing, but at the moment i s good for tennis that Marat is playing well again. He is not only a hell of a player, but he is good for the game. He is a different character out there and I think we need that for the sport."

Tennis exes move on March 11

INDIAN WELLS - Former Pacific Life Open champions Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters are together again.
The two former No. 1s are here in Indian Wells and for the first time since their highly publicized breakup they have landed at the same venue.

Following a five-year relationship and a nine-month engagement, the two split and have moved on with their private lives in public view. Along with dealing with their breakup, Clijsters suffered through an agonizing left wrist injury, one that forced her to withdraw from her defense of her 2003 title at last year's Pacific Life Open.

She played through her opening match last year, then sat along the sidelines with her wrist bandaged - watching Hewitt, worrying about her tennis future.

Soon after, she learned the left wrist would require surgery. A torn tendon was repaired and a cyst was removed in June, then another surgery was needed in September. During that span, the 21-year-old stayed close to family and friends in her native Belgium during her rehabilitation.

In October, Clijsters called it quits - not with her career, but with the relationship. She began a rigorous training regimen and has returned to Indians Wells Tennis Garden having already won a first-round match (the unseeded Clijsters next faces Japan's Shinobu Asagoe, the No. 16 seed).

Hewitt moved on as well and since has been weaving his way back up the rankings to stand at No. 2 behind Roger Federer. He also found a new mate, Australian soap opera megastar Bec Cartwright, and recently became engaged.

Hewitt said he has matured in the process, both on and off the court. After both he and his former girlfriend won singles titles here in 2003, Hewitt, who also won here in 2002, slipped in the rankings to finish at No. 17.

Today he says he is playing better than ever with a victory in Sydney, a finals appearance at the Australian Open and a quarterfinal spot in his hometown of Adelaide, Australia.

"Personally, I'm happy with how everything panned out," said Hewitt, who at age 24 has 24 singles titles. "I feel very relaxed both on and off the court. It's something you're gonna go through. It's gonna be different than seeing any other player, but we've both got big careers to look forward to and both have our own goals. There's no bad blood at all. We'll both do our own thing. I haven't spoken to her for a while but I'm sure we'll chat here."

Hewitt went on a tear last summer, after he admitted others might have written him off.

During summer hard court circuit, he compiled a 16-match winning streak (second-longest of his career) with titles in Washington and Long Island before losing to Federer in the U.S. Open final. Last year he reached at least the quarterfinal round in three of four of the Grand Slam events.

"I feel confident within myself and you learn a lot about yourself in different situations," he said. "The end of last year was a tough situation. I was not playing a lot of tennis because of everything going on off court (he also changed management), then played some of the best tennis I've ever played."

Clijsters hasn't publicly discussed the termination, but following her straight-set victory against Nicole Pratt, said that having time with family guided her through the the breakup and her injury.

"It is difficult when its get so personal, but my family has been incredible," she said. "You can learn from everything and everything turns out to be a positive if you look at it that way. ... It made me a stronger person, a more grown-up person