Hewitt v Blake in Final at ATP Las VegasPosted on March 5, 2006 The fan-friendly ATP "Tennispalooza" event, The Tennis Channel in Las Vegas, Saturday received its dream final when top seed Lleyton Hewitt turned around a dodgy start to roll past unseeded American Paul Goldstein 3-6, 6-1, 6-0, setting up a meeting with American James Blake.
"Paul came out and played extremely consistent," Hewitt said. "Early in the second set I tried to step it up a little more and dictate play." In the final Hewitt will face the No. 5-seeded Blake, who subdued the giant serving of Croatian "Dr." Ivo Karlovic 7-6(2), 6-1. "His second serve bounces up so much," said Blake on handling the Karlovic delivery. "A lot of times I'm trying to take it early, or I stay back so I can catch it coming down." Hewitt is 6-0 lifetime versus Blake, but the American hopes to turn things around as he will set a career-high ranking on Monday. "He's got great returns, I'm going to have to serve really well and put some pressure on him," Blake said. "I'm going to have to win points two or three times, he doesn't let you get those free points, he doesn't let you get into certain types of patterns." The doubles final will be (1) Bryan/Bryan (d. Coetzee/Wassen in the semis) vs. Levinsky/Lindstedt (d. (3) Aspelin/Perry). |
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