Hewitt Wins Sixth Title of Year

Lleyton Hewitt capped his breakthrough season by beating Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 6-3, 6-4, today for the Masters Cup title at Sydney, Australia.

The 20-year-old Aussie, the youngest man to finish a year with the No. 1 ranking, didn’t show any signs of a nagging hamstring injury as he won his sixth title of the year.

He earned $1.52 million for winning the title. The U.S. Open winner went into the Masters trailing defending champion Gustavo Kuerten by 48 points in the Champions Race, but overtook the Brazilian with a win over Patrick Rafter in his last round-robin match.

Hewitt was never in danger of losing the championship match, despite needing overnight treatment for his left hamstring.

Jimmy Connors had been the youngest to reach No. 1--at 22 in 1974.

Golf

Tiger Woods and David Duval surged into contention in the World Cup at Gotemba, Japan, shooting a nine-under-par 63 in the alternate-shot format to close within three strokes of New Zealand’s David Smail and Michael Campbell after three rounds.

Karrie Webb shot a one-over 73 to take a three-stroke lead over Janice Moodie in the season-ending LPGA Tour Championship at West Palm Beach, Fla. Annika Sorenstam took a one-stroke lead over Webb during the round, but finished with a 74 and a five-stroke deficit. She had a triple bogey on No. 18 after hitting two balls in the water.

Figure Skating

Three-time world champion Alexei Yagudin skated to his daring Olympic program and defeated Todd Eldredge to win his fifth consecutive Lalique Trophy Grand Prix title at Paris. American Johnny Weir, 17, finished fourth.

Russia’s Maria Butyrskaya defeated Americans Sarah Hughes and Sasha Cohen after a women’s free program that was filled with falls and mistakes.

Swimming

American Lindsay Benko won the women’s 200-meter freestyle and the 200 backstroke in the FINA World Cup at Rio de Janeiro.

Sweden’s Johanna Sjoberg won the women’s 100 butterfly and the 50 freestyle, and Germany’s Jirka Letzin won the men’s 100 and 400 individual medleys.

Miscellany

Joe Borchard’s two-run home run sparked the United States over Taiwan, 4-1, at Taipei in the semifinals of baseball’s World Cup. The Americans will play defending champion Cuba in the final today.

Kerry Earnhardt won the season-ending ARCA Pork The Other White Meat 400 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

The 30-year-old driver, the eldest son of the late champion Dale Earnhardt, beat runner-up Shane Hmiel by 6.313 seconds.

Todd Hays, piloting USA1, shattered the Mount Van Hoevenberg track record on his first run and easily defeated Martin Annen of Switzerland in the two-man competition of the Verizon Bobsled Cup at Lake Placid, N.Y. Hays and brakeman Garrett Hines set a push record, finishing the first run in 55.65 seconds.

China swept South Korea in three games and clinched the title of the women’s volleyball World Grand Champions Cup at Tokyo.