After two grueling weeks of continuous ball bashing, firm volleying, aces and faults the U.S. Tennis Open Championships came to a close Sunday night with the conclusion of the men's final.
The championship match on the men's side featured legendary champion Pete Sampras, winner of 13 grand slam titles, squaring off against flamboyant teenage sensation Lleyton Hewitt. On the women's side, history was made when sisters Serena and Venus Williams met on Saturday night in the first prime time television final in the history of tennis.
It also marked the first time since 1887 that sisters have met in the finals of America's biggest tennis tournament. It is also quite noteworthy that two African American sisters met in the final of a major tournament played in Arthur Ashe stadium. Ashe also was an African American tennis player, who in the 1960s broke through the color barriers and rose to tennis glory.
Unfortunately for tennis fans, the match did not live up to the hype as Venus, the elder of the two sisters, utterly dominated play and cruised to a largely uneventful 6-2, 6-4 win in straight sets. Similarly today, in the much-anticipated men's final, Hewitt looked invincible as he was smoking forehand and backhand winners constantly in a completely lopsided 7-6(4) 6-1, 6-1 straight set whipping.
This came as a huge surprise, considering how well Pistol-Pete had played on the road to the finals. Despite his disappointing performance in the finals, he still made history by becoming the first player to defeat three former champions in consecutive rounds. First he outplayed Patrick Rafter in the fourth round. Next, in the quarterfinals, he pulled out a nail bitter - an epic battle with his long time archrival Andre Agassi, which featured four straight tie-breakers. Pete sweated out the latter three breakers and in the end raised his arms up in complete joy.
Finally, he took on defending champion Marat Safin of Russia, whom the previous year defeated Sampras pretty handily, with a cool display of near flawless tennis. Samaras' revenge was inspired by the painful memories of that match, as well as the American crowd's strong emotional support.
He used his deadly serve to break down his opponents utilizing his patented picture-perfect serve and volley game. It was so effective that Safin could do nothing on the Sampras serve and soon became very frustrated with his predicament. He began to lose focus as Sampras continued to raise his level of play, while Safin's game continued to plummet further.
In the end, the inevitable took place as Safin conceded, while Sampras stormed into the final with a convincing 6-3, 7-6(5), 6-3 triumph.
At this point it appeared Sampras was simply playing too well, and had too much positive energy flowing to be denied a fifth U.S. Open title. However, it was not to be, as the mental and physical fatigue from the two-week drain had apparently taken its toll on the 30-year old Los Angeles resident.
Hewitt appeared to sense this early, and strategically forced Sampras into moving around the court a lot, slowing him down and neutralizing his amazing talents and abilities.
This worked very effectively as Hewitt tracked down almost every ball Sampras hit, and forced him into making unforced errors one after another. Hewitt was returning serve so well that, right off the bat in the first game of the match, he did something no other Sampras opponent had been able to accomplish since the second round...break his serve.
Pistol-Pete had won the past 87 games in which he had served, until Sunday's loss.
"The kid is so quick it's unbelievable," the 30-year-old Sampras said in a post-match interview quoted on SportsLine.com. "I wish I had some of those legs for this old guy. I lost to a great champion. You're going to see this Lleyton Hewitt guy for the next 10 years like you saw me."
Hewitt, the eventual champion, also faced a rough road to the finals, where he emerged victorious in a grueling five set, second round battle against resilient American youngster James Blake.
In the quarterfinals, Hewitt faced emerging American star Andy Roddick who was playing hot tennis. The match also went to five sets and Roddick was in good position to take the match late in the last frame.
However, after the chair umpire ruled against Roddick on a questionable call, he lost his cool, his focus, and inevitably the match. Hewitt advanced to the next round, on pure guts, plus a little luck that every champion needs.
He took full advantage of his situation and carried the momentum all the way to the winner's trophy on Sunday evening.
