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Hewitt Takes U.S. Open Title

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

September 9, 2001 / 6:46 PM EDT / CBS

The man from Down Under is on top of the tennis world. Australian Lleyton Hewitt raced past Pete Sampras 7-6, 6-1, 6-1 to win the U.S. Open. It's the first Grand Slam final for the 20-year-old Australian star.

Hewitt showed his quickness in defeating the tenth-seed Sampras, who was seeking his 14th Grand Slam title. Sampras is without a victory in a tennis Grand Slam event since winning Wimbledon last year. Sampras was trying for his fifth U.S. Open title.

Sampras entered the final with a streak of 87 games without a service break. But Hewitt broke him six times in the match against the 30-year-old Sampras.

Hewitt needed just an hour, 54 minutes to win. His victory follows Venus Williams' straight-set victory Saturday night over sister Serena Williams for the women's title. Pete Sampras will have to wait a while longer for that 14th Grand Slam title.

The record-holder with 13 of those championships, spent most of the past two weeks at the U.S. Open repairing a tattered tennis reputation. On Sunday, he surrounded the recovery with question marks.

For the second straight year, a 20-year-old young gun spoiled Sampras' bid for a Slam championship. A year ago, Marat Safin started Sampras' tumble into mediocrity, beating him in the finals of the Open. On Sunday, Lleyton Hewitt punctuated it with a 7-6 (4), 6-1, 6-1 victory.

The loss to Safin started a drought of 17 tournaments without a title for Sampras. He went 14 months without a victory and arrived at the Open seeded 10th, remarkably low for a player of his reputation.

Sampras was angered by the whispers, the suggestion that at age 30, he was on the downside of a remarkable career. He set out to change that perception and for two weeks, he accomplished the mission.

There were victories over past champions Patrick Rafter, Andre Agassi and Safin, each with the feel of a final, in a magical week that put Sampras on verge of winning his fifth Open.

And then, suddenly, on the 11th anniversary of his first Grand Slam victory at the Open, it all came apart.

The day started badly when Hewitt broke Sampras in the first game of the match, ending a string of 87 games in which he had not been broken. Sampras balanced it immediately but the message had been sent.

Sampras seemed a step slow as he traded shots with the Australian. He mis-hit more balls in this match than he had all week. The set rolled into a tiebreak, familiar territory for Sampras, who played four of them in his classic quarterfinal victory over Agassi.

But Sampras was shaken by an overrule by chair umpire Norm Cryst that gave Hewitt a critical point. He lost the tiebreak 7-4 and was in a free fall after that.

Sampras was repeatedly missing volleys. His serve, perhaps the most potent in tennis, kept coming back at him and his returns kept catching the net.

Hewitt seized control, playing textbook tennis with few unforced errors, no opportunities for Sampras to fight his way back into the match.

Samras won just two games after losing that first-set tiebreak and was finished on three sets, the same way he was a year ago against Safin, when all this trouble began.