The Hindu : Sport : Hewitt wins first tournament in two years

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Apr 14, 2009
ePaper | Mobile/PDA Version

Sport

Sport

Hewitt wins first tournament in two years

Sania Mirza-Chia Jung Chuang pair clinches doubles title

— Photo: AP

THE WAIT ENDS: By winning the U.S. men’s clay court tournament, Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt clinched his first clay court title since 1999.

Houston: Lleyton Hewitt held on to win his first tournament in two years with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over Wayne Odesnik of the United States in the U.S. men’s clay court tennis championships.

The former World No. 1, Hewitt, won his 498th career match on Sunday and moved closer to joining Roger Federer and Carlos Moya as the only active players with 500 or more victories.

The 28-year-old Australian also won his first clay court tournament since he took the Delray Beach tournament in 1999. He failed to win a tournament last year for the first time in his career while recovering from hip surgery.

Fruits of hard work

“This is what all the hard work is for, to play weeks like this and have this kind of feeling at the end,” Hewitt said. “It makes going through the surgery and all the hard work worth it.

“It’s a big day to win a clay court event. I feel every year I’m getting better on clay. Now I’m looking really forward to the French Open — with a good draw I think I can do some damage there.”

Hewitt took a 3-0 lead in the second set without much opposition from Odesnik, who was making his first ATP final.

The American rallied by breaking Hewitt in the fourth game of the second set, then withstanding five break points to hold his serve in the fifth.

“Clay is a tough surface to close players out,” Hewitt said. “I was playing great tennis up to that point, but he’s a tough player and he doesn’t give you any cheap points out there. He makes you work for all of them. I felt I was able to put pressure on him up to that stage.”

Odesnik broke Hewitt two more times for a 5-3 lead in the second set. Then his serving problems returned and he was broken after three break points in the ninth game and again in the 11th game. Hewitt won on the first match point on Odesnik’s forehand error.

Hewitt didn’t need the extended match that took two hours and three minutes. Rain had already caused a one hour and 25 minutes delay at the start. Hewitt hoped to catch a flight to Monte Carlo, where he is scheduled for a first-round match on Tuesday.

“I might miss the flight now,” he said. “It’s going to be hard now but this is the why I came here, to win the tournament. Obviously playing Monte Carlo is a bonus but right now my focus has been on winning this tournament. Now I’ll start worrying about next week.”

Wozniacki triumphs

At Ponte Vedra Beach, second-seeded Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark beat Canadian Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-2 on Sunday to win the WTA clay court tournament.

Denmark’s Wozniacki made just 14 unforced errors and won 84 per cent of points on her first serve to lift the trophy.

Meanwhile in doubles, India’s Sania Mirza lifted her first WTA title of the year, teaming up with Chinese Taipei’s Chia-Jung Chuang to stun the top-seeded Czech-American combine of Kveta Peschke and Lisa Raymond 6-3, 4-6, 10-7 in a gruelling one-and-a-half-hour battle to notch up their first title together.

“This was our second tournament together, so we have had a lot more match practice together. Kveta and Lisa have been playing for a long time and they’re really experienced, and we’re really happy to have beaten them,” an elated Sania said after the win that made her and Chuang richer by $11,000.

For Sania, it was also her eighth career doubles title and her first in more than a year. The Indian last won a doubles title in August 2007 with Italian Mara Santangelo at the New Haven hard-court event in USA.

“We just played the big points better at the end, I think that was the difference,” said Sania.

In an intriguing battle, Sania and Chuang tested their fancied rivals from the very start, earning seven break points in the opening set.

The unseeded duo converted three of the seven breaks it got and saved four of the six breaks it faced to go one-up in the marathon match.

The second set was equally hard-fought, but Peschke and Raymond converted a crucial break point to equalise.

However, in the nerve-wracking super tie-breaker, it was Sania and Chuang who kept their cool to seal the issue.

Byes for Paes, Bhupathi

Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi, with their respective partners, advanced to the men’s doubles second round at Monte Carlo Masters after getting first-round byes.

While Paes has teamed up with Czech Lukas Dlouhy, Bhupathi is playing alongside Mark Knowles.

Victor Hanescu advanced to the second round with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Alberto Martin and Andreas Seppi got past Jurgen Melzer with a 6-2, 6-0 win.

The results:

At Houston (U.S. clay court championships): Final: Lleyton Hewitt bt Wayne Odesnik 6-2, 7-5.

At Ponte Vedra Beach (WTA MPS Group Championships): Final: Singles: Caroline Wozniacki bt Aleksandra Wozniak 6-1, 6-2.

Doubles: Sania Mirza & Chia-Jung Chuang bt Kveta Peschke & Lisa Raymond 6-3, 4-6, 10-7.

At Monte Carlo (Monte Carlo Masters): First round: Oscar Hernandez bt Julien Benneteau 6-4, 6-4; Juan Ignacio Chela bt Igor Kunitsyn 6-4, 2-6, 7-5; Victor Hanescu bt Albert Martin 6-2, 6-3; Andreas Seppi bt Jurgen Melzer 6-2, 6-0; Marcel Granollers bt Jose Acasuso 7-6(4), 7-6(2).

At Barcelona (Barcelona Ladies Open): First round: Lucie Safarova bt Tsvetana Pironkova 6-1, 3-6, 6-0; Magdalena Rybarikova bt Klara Zakopalova 6-1, 7-6(7). — Agencies

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport