TENNIS MASTERS CUP SHANGHAI 2002

Natural Born Winner


Lleyton Hewitt celebrates his 2002
Tennis Masters Cup Shanghai
triumph with Shanghai Mayor
Chen Liangyu.
Winners are born, not made, and winning is the only thing Lleyton Hewitt understands. No path is too difficult; no mountain too high; no task too arduous for this player from Adelaide who won his first tournament at the age of 16 and went on to win the Tennis Masters Cup for the second consecutive year in Shanghai in 2002.

By beating Juan Carlos Ferrero from 1-3 down in the fifth, Hewitt not only defied medical logic by finding a reserve tank of physical energy few would have thought possible but he placed himself alongside the greatest players of the Open era. As a multiple winner of this year-end finale to one of sport's most grueling examinations of stamina and determination, Hewitt joined Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe and Pete Sampras in winning back-to-back titles while only Ilie Nastase in the seventies and Ivan Lendl a decade later have managed three in a row.

The most remarkable aspect of Hewitt's triumph was that the Australian was never at his best throughout a tumultuous week of wonderfully enthusiastic crowds and great tennis. Marat Safin, who beat him in the final of the BNP Paribas Masters in Paris two weeks prior, nearly got him in the round-robin and then Roger Federer put him through three of the toughest sets imaginable in the semi-final.

Stamina, as Hewitt admitted the night before, was always going to be a factor in the final and, after running another marathon to win the first two sets 7-5, 7-5 against Ferrero, it seemed as if the tank had run dry. First serves were missed on a regular basis and backhands thudded into the net. Ferrero leveled by winning the third and fourth 6-2, 6-2 and many experts thought Hewitt was finished when the Spaniard earned a 3-1 lead in the fifth.

But it was then that Hewitt found his first serve and produced two love games out of three in between breaking back to get the set on level terms. Once that happened you could see the confidence drain from Ferrero's game. Hewitt's eyes grew wider as he focused on each service return and he was back on track - the only track he knows; the one that leads to the winner's circle.


- Richard Evans








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