Lleyton Hewitt, who seems to feed off controversy and adversity, endured 31 aces to beat second-seeded Andy Roddick 3-6, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (4), 6-1 on Friday and advance to the Australian Open final.
Third-ranked Hewitt, the ”Aussie battler” who complained before the tournament about the courts being slow and has angered three opponents with his loud shouts to pump himself up, was at his aggressive, fist-pumping best against Roddick.
He fired up the crowd, but one man was too vocal for Roddick’s tastes — he complained about a fan shouting during his service motion in the seventh game of the third set.
Hewitt is trying to become the first Australian man to win in Melbourne since Mark Edmondson in 1976 — Pat Cash lost the 1987 and 1988 finals. He will face fourth-seeded Marat Safin in a match-up of former top-ranked players in Sunday’s first-ever evening men’s final. Safin ended top-ranked Roger Federer’s 26-match winning streak in the other semifinal.
The women’s final pits top-ranked Lindsay Davenport against number seven Serena Williams on Saturday.
Hewitt has won major titles at Wimbledon in 2002 and the US Open in 2001. Safin won the 2000 US Open and has lost two previous finals at Melbourne Park, including last year against Federer.
”Always said I’d do anything to have chance to play in the first night final here in history, and I’ve got my chance,” Hewitt said. ”It’s awesome. It’s a little bit hard to believe at the moment. I love this place.”
But he knows he still has a tough match ahead.
”Obviously, Marat’s beaten the best player going around.” Hewitt said. ”He’s playing extremely well. I’m going to have to raise my level yet again and see what happens.”
Roddick said the tiebreakers were the difference.
”I’m usually pretty money in those,” Roddick said. ”Either one of those would have given me a distinct advantage.
”I’m mad. I felt I was in there with a shot. He put himself in position to win big points. I donated a little more than I would have wanted.”
Roddick came out hot, jumping ahead at 2-0. He converted his fourth break-point opportunity when Hewitt hit long on a forehand from Roddick that was called good but television replays indicated was just long.
As he has done so often, Roddick relied on his blistering serve to get out of early trouble. He had six aces as he served at 5-3, using them to fend off four of Hewitt’s five break points in the game, then finish off the set with another two.
Roddick made it seven aces in a row with four in the next game.
But Hewitt had only three unforced errors in the second set, which saw the first appearance of his trademark ”Come on!” while pointing his fingers at his forehead in the 16th game — much later than usual.
Hewitt still needed a tiebreaker — Roddick had won all three that they had played despite the Australian’s 4-1 record in head-to-head meetings — to even the match. Hewitt had the only ace to pull ahead 6-3, and Roddick netted a backhand on the next point.
After cracking 23 aces in the first two sets, Roddick had only eight in the last two.
”It’s never routine, especially playing a guy like Andy,” Hewitt said. ”He’s got so much firepower, and I had to weather the storm.”
Roddick went ahead in the third set when Hewitt double-faulted at break point. But serving at 4-2, 30-30, Roddick — clearly trying to put a little extra on his second serve — double-faulted twice to return the favour. He had only six double-faults in the previous five matches, but had nine against Hewitt.
At the changeover, Roddick complained to chair umpire Andreas Egli about a fan calling out during his service motion.
When Egli indicated he couldn’t control everyone in the crowd, Roddick responded: ”You’re telling me I can have someone shout during every one of his serves and you can’t do anything about it?”
He complained again in the next game after someone shouted as he served at 40-0 after his 27th ace.
”It just took one jackass to shout out,” Roddick said later, adding that the crowd overall was great, ”very respectful”.
Another tiebreaker, and Hewitt peaked at the right time again.
From 4-4, he ran off the last three points, the last a backhand crosscourt pass. Hewitt leaned low and pumped his fist three times with another ”Come on!”.
Roddick took a break to change his clothes, and said a tournament official hassled him for taking too long.
”I asked him if he could tie one shoe for me and I could tie the other to save time,” Roddick said. ”I wasn’t too fond of it.”
While he denied the incident affected him, Roddick came out flat for the fourth set.
Hewitt, who has been nursing sore thighs, had spent 14-and-a-half hours on court — twice as long as Roddick — over of his previous five matches, including a four-hour, five-setter in the quarterfinals.
But he still looked strong at the end, breaking an increasingly downcast Roddick for the first time while jumping ahead 3-0 in the fourth set.
Another break followed to make it 5-1, and Hewitt held for the match when Roddick sent a service return long.
Hewitt dropped to his knees, kissed the court and hit a ball high into the air as the crowd roared.
In the women’s doubles final, US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova and Australia’s Alicia Molik combined to down Americans Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu 6-3, 6-4.
Davenport and Morariu lost to Serena Williams and Venus Williams in the 2001 doubles final in Melbourne. In between, Morariu underwent chemotherapy treatment for leukaemia and has had two shoulder operations. — Sapa-AP