Lleyton Hewitt clinches the title.
HEWITT CLINCHES FIRST TITLE
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Australia's Lleyton Hewitt claimed his first Wimbledon title with a
comprehensive victory over unheralded Argentinian David Nalbandian.
The top seed and world number one was simply too good for a nervous
Nalbandian, the 28th seed and first player to reach the final on his senior
debut in the championships.
In the most one-sided final since John McEnroe beat Jimmy Connors in 1984 for
the loss of just four games, Hewitt added the Wimbledon title to his US Open
crown with a 6-1 6-3 6-2 win in just under two hours.
The writing was on the wall as soon as Nalbandian opened the match with a
double fault, Hewitt racing through the first four games in just 15 minutes as
Nalbandian made a string of unforced errors in his first match on Centre Court.
Nalbandian had been disqualified from his semi-final of junior Wimbledon in
1999 for turning up late, and at times it was as if he had not turned up at all
as Hewitt took complete control.
The 20-year-old from Cordoba eventually won his first game of the match after
saving two break points, his first two outright winners of the contest reducing
his deficit to 4-1.
He then forced two break points on Hewitt's serve and at last seemed to be
getting into the match, but the Australian held on and Nalbandian's woes were
complete when he served a double fault to give Hewitt the set 6-1.
Hewitt then saved two break points in the opening game of the second set
before the first rain interruption forced the players off court, no doubt much
to Nalbandian's relief.
The rain delay proved thankfully brief but appeared insufficient for
Nalbandian to pull himself together and he immediately lost his serve on the
resumption to fall 2-0 behind.
But if Hewitt thought he was in for an easy ride like the first set, he was
mistaken as the Argentinian broke back straight away to get back into the
match.
The players were then tied at 3-3 AND 30-30 on Hewitt's serve when another
shower forced them off court for a second time.
Hewitt wasted no time on the resumption in taking the next two points to hold
his serve, and promptly broke Nalbandian's serve for a 5-3 lead.
The 21-year-old went 0-30 down on his serve to give Nalbandian hope of staying
in the set, but Hewitt was not to be denied and held his nerve to take a two
sets to nil lead.
Hewitt again took the early initiative in the third set but Nalbandian was
showing much more fight than the first set and broke straight back to level at
two sets all.
He needed to string several games together however and was unable to do that
as Hewitt made it three service breaks in a row courtesy of a lapse in focus
from his opponent.
Nalbandian thought a Hewitt forehand on break point was long and appealed to
the line judge while still playing the point, which Hewitt won to take a 3-2
lead.
That seemed to shatter Nalbandian's resolve and Hewitt took the next three
games to seal a comprehensive win.
Elsewhere on Sunday Australia's Todd Woodbridge claimed his seventh Wimbledon men's doubles title.
He partnered Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman to a 6-1 6-2 6-7 (6-8) 7-5 victory over
Mark Knowles, of the Bahamas, and Canada's Daniel Nestor.
Woodbridge won his six previous titles between 1993 and 2000 as part of the
famed Woodies partnership with fellow Australian Mark Woodford, who is now
retired.
To a background of noise from Wimbledon's newly renamed "Hewitt Hill", fifth
seeds Woodbridge and Bjorkman raced through the opening two sets on Court One,
dropped the third set on a tie-break and finally broke the serve of Knowles to
secure victory by taking the fourth set 7-5.
The Williams sisters completed their domination in SW19 by winning the women's doubles final.
Singles champion Serena and runner-up Venus beat Argentina's Paola Suarez and
Virginia Ruano Pascual of Spain, the number two seeds, 6-2 7-5 in the final.
The Williams pair have now won the women's doubles twice, having first claimed
the crown two years ago.
Mahesh Bhupathi and Elena Likhovtseva wrapped up this year's championships when they won the mixed doubles title.
India's Bhupathi and Likhovtseva, the Russian who ended British discovery
Elena Baltacha's ladies' singles run in the third round, beat Zimbabwe's Kevin
Ullyett and Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova 6-2 1-6 6-1 in the final after
overcoming American pair Don Johnson and Kimberly Po-Messerli in the semi-finals
earlier in the day.
And Britain finally tasted success when veterans
Colin Dowdeswell and Buster Mottram won the men's over-45 doubles title.
The two former British stars beat Americans Sandy Mayer and Peter Fleming -
John McEnroe's old doubles partner - 7-5, 6-4.