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Agassi wins Cincinnati Masters for third time
A resurgent Andre Agassi defeated tenth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt 6-3, 3-6, 6-2 on Sunday to win the Cincinnati Masters tournament. "This certainly gives me a new life," Agassi said. "I came into this week with a lot of questions. So for me to end up winning was beyond what I could have expected." Agassi, the 11th seed, beat 21-year-old Andy Roddick in the semifinals, then wore down the 23-year-old Australian on Sunday.
"It's been a tough 24 hours, but my body held up great," said the 34-year-old Agassi. He broke Hewitt's serve three times, after Hewitt had been broken only once in five matches. "He hit a lot of first serves and a lot of serves right on the line and corners and stuff," Hewitt said. "I just couldn't get into his service games." Hewitt had problems with his serve in the first set. With Agassi leading 3-2, Hewitt was serving 40-0 but lost four straight points before rallying to tie the set at 3. Two games later, he lost the first point by double-faulting, then hit the deciding point into the net to put Agassi up 5-3. Still, Agassi had trouble putting away the set. Serving 15-40, he won the next four points, including a 120-mph ace. "I felt I had chances throughout the first set and I just wasn't able to capitalize on them," Hewitt said. In the second set, Hewitt broke Agassi to take a 5-3 lead. Agassi had seemed to be regaining the pinpoint placement that had gotten better with each match. But when his shot on game point was a fraction wide, Hewitt raised his fists to his chest and let out a scream, then served out the set to even the match. Agassi broke Hewitt again in the third set to take a 3-1 lead, and Hewitt double faulted on match point. That made Agassi the oldest ATP Tour winner since Jimmy Connors won consecutive titles at Toulouse and Tel Aviv when he was 37 in 1989. The win is Agassi's first in 17 months. He hadn't reached an ATP final since November at the Tennis Masters Cup. He earned $400,000 with the win, almost doubling his earnings for the year. The win eased some of the frustration that had been building since Agassi had to skip Wimbledon because of an inflamed hip. "The last few months, there has been a lot of disappointment," said Agassi, who maintained a rigorous training regimen even when he wasn't playing tennis. "I came into this week, arguably, at my lowest moment," he said. "Now I'm looking to reap the rewards of the work." Agassi said the quickness of the court helped his serve, which let him be more aggressive. "I've really been doing a good job this week of any time I get a chance to take the offense," Agassi said. "I've really been executing well, and that makes a big difference against the top guys. Because if you're not taking it to them, they're taking it to you." Hewitt, who won titles earlier this year at Sydney and Rotterdam, thought he had the momentum to beat Agassi after winning the second set. "I felt like I fought extremely hard to get myself back in the match," Hewitt said. "Then the third set, he came out, held a quick service game first game, and I was sort of on the back foot the whole time." Agassi had played much more tennis than Hewitt this week, and had a shorter rest after a grueling three-set win over second-seeded Roddick on Saturday night. Agassi had played three, three-game sets while beating three seeded players, while Hewitt hadn't lost a set during the weeklong tournament. Saturday's victory over Roddick moved Agassi into fifth place on the career list with his 807th win, passing Stefan Edberg. Agassi has reached the finals at an ATP event 87 times and has 59 titles, the most of any active player. He fell out of the top 10 last week for the first time since May 1999. The win evened his record against Hewitt at 4-4. In their last match, Agassi beat Hewitt in three sets in the quarterfinals of the 2002 U.S. Open. The tournament was the fourth in the U.S. Open Series Bonus Challenge, which links the performance of players in 10 designated ATP and WTA tournaments to bonus prize money at the Aug. 30-Sept. 12 U.S. Open. With the victory Agassi moves into second place behind Andy Roddick in the U.S. Open Series points standings. Roddick has 155 points to Agassi's 108. |
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