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It's On to Miami for Top duo
Lleyton & Kim: tennis' first couple
Clijsters brings 'A' game against the Williamses; Can anyone beat Hewitt?
By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
If Kim Clijsters and Lleyton Hewitt survive their post victory celebration party after winning the titles at Pacific Life Open (and they probably will since Hewitt said it's likely going to consist of a round of golf), they will go into Miami as the hottest tennis couple since Chris Evert and Jimmy Connors wowed the world in the early 70s.
Clijsters went a long way in the desert in restoring her confidence after dropping finals in Antwerp and Scottsdale, out running Lindsay Davenport and playing tremendous "D" in her 6-4, 7-5 victory overt the American.
"Against Lindsay, you have to move well and try to get that extra ball," said Clijsters. "It's important to show that you're fighting and you're really hungry to play. I did that really well."
Kim won the battle of forehands, returned more consistently and played the bigger points much better than Lindsay, who made terrific progress but needs to get the timing back on her serve. Clijsters ended the contest with 25 winners to 20 from Davenport, who also committed 37 unforced errors.
"She's playing a lot smarter and a lot more confident than before when she before when she would miss some balls or lose her concentration," Davenport said. "Now she seems to be focused throughout the entire match. She's the reason why I didn't play great. She hit the ball with different spins, some hard, some soft, very consistent and gets a lot of balls back."
Clijsters has now won 12 titles and has reached four finals this year, winning two of them. Davenport said that the Belgian is now the obvious No. 3. "It's a big change to go from the underdog to the favorite all of a sudden and I think she's handled that very well,' Davenport said.
Kim said the key has been her maturity.
"I'm more consistent and, when I'm down, I don't panic," she said. "When I was younger, I was trying to do too many things to get back and now I try to make all my shots and not try for too much and let my opponent make the mistakes. Plus, I can move well and can be aggressive and that's a good combination to get to a high level."
But there's one thing that disturbing about Clijsters, whenever she was asked about playing the Williamses the past three weeks, she went into deep cover, using her old line that they have to go through bad spots in order for her to beat them. Until she recovers the confidence that had her saying last fall that her "A" game is just as good as theirs, she'll stay at No. 3.
Can anyone beat Hewitt?
In so many ways, Hewitt won the Pacific Life Open in the first round, after he fought off three match points in the second set to down Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui 4-6, 7-5, 6-2. After that, he believed that regardless of how he was playing, he would find a way to gut it out.
He truly embarrassed three-time Roland Garros champ Guga Kuerten in the final, who was both mentally and physically tired after winning his rain postponed semi against the Rainer Schuettler. All of Guga's magic was gone.
Hewitt completely outplayed Kuerten, making just 10 unforced errors to the Brazilian's 30, while hitting 19 winners. Hewitt broke the three-time French Open champion five times in the match and was never bothered by Kuerten's flying groundies. The 21-year-old Australian dominated their crosscourt backhand rallies and ran down every drop shot.
"I had a lot of confidence in my backhand crosscourt against his backhand," Hewitt said. "Standing inside the court I wasn't giving him the chance. I was keeping my balls deep and it wasn't easy for him to go up the line. Then he started pressing."
Last year, Hewitt punished Britain's Tim Henman 6-1, 6-2. This year, he sucked the air of the stadium in thrashing Guga.
He became the first back-to-back winner at Indian Wells since Michael Chang successfully defended his title in 1997. The Brazilian was so impressed that he said that Hewitt he could become one of the all-time greats. "If he maintains a level like this, he will be one of the guys to compare with Andre [Agassi] and Pete [Sampras] with tournament wins and Grand Slams. He can play well on every surface," said Kuerten. "If he keeps going like this, he could win seven or eight Grand Slams."
Hewitt has now won 12 consecutive matches and has a 15-1 record in 2003. His only loss was El Aynaoui in the fourth round of the Australian Open. He also won the Scottsdale event last week in Arizona and is on such a roll that it's hard to think of any player who will seriously threaten him in Miami if he's not tuckered out. Andre Agassi is injured and even if he shows up in Miami, won't be at 100 percent. Hewitt said that since winning the '01 US Open, there isn't a player he' isn't confident against.
"Even before the US Open I felt I could probably beat anyone on any given day but it didn't mean I was going to," he said. "Obviously, my confidence after the US Open grew and grew."
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