Re: Indian Wells四強賽
Hewitt Closes on Title Defense
Defending champion Lleyton Hewitt won his 11th consecutive match at
Indian Wells to advance to his second consecutive Pacific Life Open
final by beating American qualifier Vince Spadea 7-6(5), 6-1 Saturday.
Spadea took the match to Hewitt in the first set of the semifinal but
the Australian busted open the match in the second set to improve his
2003 match record to 14-1.
Hewitt made 22 unforced errors in the first set, more than he often
makes during a three-set match. Spadea had a point for 5-2 during the first
set but was brought undone by an unlucky let cord while at net. Trailing 3-6
in the tie-break, Spadea saved two set points on the Hewitt serve but then
double faulted for the second time in the 'breaker to hand the set to the
defending champion.
From that point Hewitt ran away with the match, claiming a double break in
the second set as he tightened his game. (He made just nine unforced errors
in the second set.)
Hewitt is attempting to become the first back-to-back champion in Indian
Wells since Michael Chang in 1996-97.
"I wasn't quite as sharp as I could have been at the start of today's match,
but I got better as the match went on," Hewitt said. "The second set I played
a lot better.
"I think I've been getting better and better with every match. Started off
with a tough draw early on against El Aynaoui. I survived that match. I've
had some pretty tough matches. The Coria match was very tough as well.
I feel like I've been getting my rhythm a lot better during the week.
The last couple of days have been a lot windier out there. It's actually
tougher to play with your rhythm. I felt like I'm a little bit slow starting,
but in the end I've played better tennis."
In the final Hewitt plays the winner of German Rainer Schuettler and
Gustavo Kuerten. When Hewitt and Kuerten last met - at Davis Cup level
on clay in 2001 - the Australian scored a spectacular straight-sets win
on clay in Kuerten's home town of Florianopolis.
"I think it was the best I've ever played," Hewitt said. "In those
conditions, in that atmosphere, on my worst surface and his best surface.
Yeah, in such a big match, a clutch match... a lot of people have told me I
was hitting bad bounces in the middle of the racquet that day. I'm not sure
why, but I went out there and just played one of my best matches. I'm not
really sure why. Everything I sort of touched that day turned to gold."
Spadea, who is expected to jump from 42nd to 11th in the ATP Champions
Race after his spectacular run this week, said that he was delighted to
reach the last four in Indian Wells.
"It's something I've never done before. It's the furthest I've gone,
period, in a Tennis Masters Series. To qualify, that's an extra bonus
in my mentality when I'm playing next week and throughout this year.
I'm striving for things that I haven't done before, and these are the kind
of moments that are rewarding based on what I've been trying to focus on.
"I just ran out of gas a little bit [in the second set]. He upped his level
slightly. My serve kind of deserted me today. I think that hurt me a lot
because it put pressure on me to play long rallies. It's difficult to beat
him every point doing that, especially when he's getting free points on his
serve.
"He exploits every part of your game, and he's trying to wear you down and
trying to beat you. He plays great defense. If you give him a short ball,
he plays efficient offense... Once you do feel like you've won the point,
you're at net, understand he's scrambling to pass you, which is one of his
weapons, as well. He's got a lot of weapons that aren't so obvious, as well
as the ones that are obvious."
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