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Wimbledon
Lleyton Hewitt - Gentlemen's Champion

Review of the 2002 Championships

Ron Atkin, Sunday, July 7 2002

Wimbledon 2002 turned out to be a victorious occasion for the favourites, with the top seed and world number one, Lleyton Hewitt, capturing the Men's Championship and Serena Williams ascending to world number one after defeating her sister Venus in the Women's Final.

Despite poor weather at times in the second week, The Championships were another huge success, with the second highest attendance in the tournament's history of 469,000 (some 60,000 of them from overseas) and almost three million visitors to the Official Wimbledon Web Site.

The 21-year-old Hewitt is the first Australian since Pat Cash in 1987 to win Wimbledon, and after capturing his first Grand Slam at the US Open last September, he looks set to rule the world for a while. His victory today was a routine one, the sixth straight-sets win out of the seven matches he played. Only in the quarter-final, when he was extended to five sets by the Netherlands' Sjeng Schalken, was Hewitt stretched.

The Men's Singles event produced several highlights, not least the appearance in the final of the 20-year-old Argentine, David Nalbandian, competing in his first grass court senior tournament. After a comprehensive slaughter of the seeded men in the first week, only two Americans, Andy Roddick and the lucky loser Jeff Morrison, survived into the third round. Among those who had packed their bags early were seven-times winner Pete Sampras and the third-seeded Andre Agassi.

The second seed, Marat Safin, was also an early victim and, with last year's winner and runner-up, Goran Ivanisevic and Pat Rafter, unable to return because of shoulder problems, it was left to the little-known brigade and a couple of big hitters coming back from injury, Richard Krajicek and Mark Philippoussis, to keep the tournament buzzing.

Krajicek, who had been out for 20 months because of an elbow operation, performed far beyond his own expectations, defeating Philippoussis in a marathon quarter-final before falling, once more in five sets, to Belgium's Xavier Malisse.

For the fourth time in five years the ambitions of the leading British hope, Tim Henman, ended at the semi-final stage when he was outplayed by Hewitt, while Greg Rusedski's plan to launch an all-out attack on the title was frustrated in the fourth round by Malisse's big hitting.

There were three South American players in the last eight (Andre Sa of Brazil, Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador and Nalbandian) and the Argentine became the first from that continent to reach the final since Alex Olmedo of Peru won here in 1959.

The Ladies' Championship was dominated from start to finish, as expected, by the incredible Williams sisters. After victories in 2000 and 2001, Venus was bidding to become the first woman to win three Wimbledons in succession since Steffi Graf in 1991-93. Apart from one small hiccup when she dropped a set to the little-known Canadian, Maureen Drake, in the third round, the progress of the world number one was smooth enough into the final, by which time she had amassed 20 straight singles victories at The Championships, despite a precautionary bandage on her left knee and a sore shoulder.

But it was Serena whose game was sharper, stronger and generally more impressive. Since watching Venus win Wimbledon 12 months earlier, Serena's own career had gathered pace in most encouraging fashion and, in that year, she had suffered defeat on only four occasions while collecting six titles (Wimbledon becoming her seventh). Until coming to London, victory at Roland Garros in the French Open was the highlight, in which she had defeated Venus in straight sets to avenge the loss to her sister at the US Open final last September.

Serena's progress had been glitch-free. The only opponent to furrow her brow was a Belgian qualifier, Els Callens, who took the second seed to two tie-break sets before being elbowed aside, accounting in the process for 12 of the 43 games conceded in seven rounds by Serena.

Only the third seed and fellow-American, Jennifer Capriati, had been expected to offer serious resistance to the Williamses, but she was swept away in the quarter-finals on the tidal wave of an exuberant display of power tennis by the French girl, Amelie Mauresmo, who herself was blown away by Serena in the semi-finals.

With the women's game already urgently seeking someone capable of challenging the Williams sisters, it was encouraging to see the skills and high promise of the 19-year-old Slovak, Daniela Hantuchova, being translated into Wimbledon success. Hantuchova had already given clear indication that she will become a force to be reckoned with by defeating Martina Hingis to win the Indian Wells title in March. Seeded 11th at Wimbledon, she eventually fell to the Serena juggernaut in the quarter-finals but the scoreline of 6-3, 6-2 did not accurately reflect the battle Hantuchova put up.

Perhaps the best match of an upset-free Ladies' Championship was the quarter-final in which last year's runner-up, Justine Henin of Belgium, defeated Monica Seles 7-5, 7-6.

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