Federer Clinches Back-to-Back Crowns
Roger Federer celebrates victory. Roger Federer proved himself the strongest force in tennis for the second year in succession as he defeated Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 6-2 in a rain-hit final to win a second consecutive Tennis Masters Cup Sunday in Houston.
The superlative Swiss ignored an interruption near the end of the first set on the way to his sixth defeat of the Australian this season.
Federer again won the trophy in Houston and claimed a check of $1.52 million.
The winner of three of 2004's four Grand Slams became the first repeat champion at the elite year-end event since Hewitt in 2001-2002.
"What can I say, this is an unbelievable end to a fantastic season," said the Swiss champion. "It started off at the Australian Open and just kept on coming.
"This is way too much to ask for, it's been fantastic."
Federer came to Houston with a thigh injury healing and a lack of matches. He completed Red group play undefeated and won his semi-final against Marat Safin in straight sets, a match which included the joint-longest tie-breaker (20-18) in tennis.
Federer, with 11 trophies in 2004, ended the year with a 17-match winning streak on the season and has won 13 straight finals. He also improved to 8-7 over Hewitt, having won all six of their meetings in 2004 and he was 23-0 against Top 10 opponents.
Three of those victories against Hewitt came in Grand Slams including a straight-sets defeat to win the U.S. Open. Federer also beat the Aussie this week in group play.
"Roger is the standout player of the last year and a half," said Hewitt. "He really deserves this title, he's a hell of a player. It was a goal of mine to get to Houston this year. At least we finished on line with this weather."
Federer stood two points from the first set as rain which had fallen all day returned.
The Swiss World No. 1 held a 5-2 lead over Hewitt as light drizzle morphed into more of the rain which had delayed the start of the title match by three hours and cut its intended length from the best of five to the best of three sets.
Federer had wasted no time in starting the match at the end of a long day's wait. He produced two aces in the opening game for 1-0, then put Hewitt under 0-30 pressure as the Aussie went to serve.
Hewitt managed to save one break point after a long rally but dropped serve on Federer's second chance as the superlative Swiss grabbed a 2-0 lead.
Federer, riding a 16-match win streak, made it a quick 3-0 with a love game. But the Hewitt resistance stiffened in the face of 11 winners for Federer and just one for the Aussie.
Hewitt held for the first time to get on the scoreboard, then kept in the chase even as the Swiss reached 4-1.
- Bill Scott
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