Hewitt Ends Henman’s Title Dream
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© Getty ImagesLleyton Hewitt
Lleyton Hewitt is through to his fourth final at the Stella Artois Championships after coming back from a break down in the third set to defeat Britain’s Tim Henman in the semifinals.
Hewitt claimed his ninth win in 10 meetings against Henman with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 victory and kept his hopes of joining John McEnroe and Boris Becker as the only four-time winners at The Queen’s Club alive.
Hewitt, who won three consecutive titles at the Stella Artois Championships between 2000-02, defeating Henman in two of those finals, found himself 2-0 down in the deciding set as the British No. 3 appeared to be on his way to a fourth final.
However, Hewitt benefited from some questionable line calls and took full advantage, winning six consecutive games to reach his third final of the year, having finished runner-up in Las Vegas and San Jose, in 1 hour, 46 minutes.
“I felt like I started returning better again,” said Hewitt. “I felt like I won the first set playing pretty good tennis out there. And at the start of the second I had chances to break early and go up a set and a break, and he served well on the big points out there today. And, you know, his serve didn't really go off until a bit later during the third set where I started getting some opportunities on his second serve to put a bit of pressure on him. Up till then, you know, he was hitting his first serve well, and I couldn't try and dictate too much on the return of serve, and he was always the one getting that first hit in.”
Hewitt, the World No. 13 and eighth seed here, will be looking to claim his first ATP title since winning Sydney in January 2005.
For Henman, who had looked impressive throughout the tournament with wins over Andre Agassi, Ramon Delgado, Nicolas Mahut and Dmitry Tursunov en route to the semifinals, it was a disappointing end to the tournament.
“It goes both ways,” said Henman, referring to the line calls and in particular a call that went against him on break point leading 2-1 in the final set. “I'm sure I had some in my favor. But I think when it comes on a breakpoint like that, it obviously does have an impact. That went against me and in all honesty I wouldn't say I then dealt with it very well because I think it frustrated me. He started to turn the match around, and it ran away quickly.”
Henman, who voiced his opinion to ATP supervisor Thomas Karlberg during the third set, added: “It's disappointing today. I would have loved to have gone into the final again. But it's been a fantastic week. It gives me a great foundation to build from for next week's practice and obviously Wimbledon.”