Hewitt Gets the Breakat Open

Andy Roddick’s forehand landed on the far sideline, and suddenly and inexplicably, chair umpire Jorge Dias stirred from up high late in the fifth set in the wee hours Friday and made a pronouncement from his vantage point. He overruled the winner.

Roddick went nuts. In his teenaged words, he went “postal.” Television replays showed the forehand was clearly good, catching the line. He was serving to stay alive, trailing, 4-5, in the fifth set against fourth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and the overrule came on the first point of that 10th game.

Roddick tossed his racket and stormed up to Dias. “No ... “ Roddick screamed at him. “How can you overrule from the far side? What is wrong with you? It was right on the line. What are you ... are you an absolute moron?” Dias, who is from Portugal, gave him a warning and, of course, did not change his mind. Four points later, a rattled and rushed Roddick was out of the tournament and Hewitt landed in the semifinals against Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia. Hewitt defeated Roddick, 6-7 (5), 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, in 3 hours 40 minutes. Roddick had 21 aces to Hewitt’s 15.

Hewitt’s tenacity was evident on match point, running down and ripping a backhand passing shot down the line. He was resolute and managed to retrieve many of Roddick’s best shots, and broke his serve three times.

Roddick, who reached the quarterfinals in only his second Open, was devastated. He went through several mood swings in the interview room, from distraught and teary-eyed to defiant to flip to humorous.

“I thought it was a very good match, both of us fought hard,” he said. “It’s unfortunate I blew up and it ended the way it did. It’s pretty disheartening when you fight that hard and something like that happens.

“You just feel like someone reaches inside you and takes something. Of course, I went postal. You fight so hard. And he’s probably one of the best fighters. I’m hanging toe to toe. I had chances and the guy overrules on the far sideline at 4-5 in the fifth. That’s just infuriating.”

He was just getting going and called the situation “pathetic.”

“No umpire in his right mind would make that call,” Roddick said. “That’s not a ball he can say, ‘I saw it clearly, 100 percent, no doubt in my mind out.’ If he can say that, he’s a liar.”

The flash of anger and controversial ending marred a brilliant match. It started slowly and picked up momentum, even though thousands of spectators departed Arthur Ashe Stadium when Roddick dropped the third set. They missed another riveting contest as Roddick found another level in the fourth.

“I was feeling a bit dodgy after losing the fourth,” Hewitt said. “I didn’t see how I was going to break him in the fifth. He made a couple of errors and I was able to get the break.”

Hewitt was gracious and complimentary of Roddick’s game.

“He’s going to be in the top five,” Hewitt said. He paused and finished the sentence, saying: “In a few weeks.”

Roddick and Hewitt eliminated the hangover looming all day and part of the night over the National Tennis Center in the aftermath of the brilliance produced by Pete Sampras’ four-set victory against Andre Agassi.

No fault of top-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil or No. 7 Kafelnikov but it had to be fairly difficult being the follow-up act. Kafelnikov tried for something completely different--some serve-and-volley tennis--and came away with his most one-sided victory against Kuerten since 1996. Kafelnikov defeated Kuerten, 6-4, 6-0, 6-3, in the quarterfinals in 1 hour 32 minutes. In one mind-numbing stretch, starting from 4-4, Kafelnikov won 11 consecutive games.

“Obviously, the key was winning the first set,” Kafelnikov said. “He wasn’t going to dominate me like he did in the French Open. So that was quite important. I just cannot describe what happened. For every question he made to me, I had an answer. That’s something I’m proud of.”

Kafelnikov got himself off the baseline after hearing some words --many words, of course--from the ubiquitous TV commentator John McEnroe.

“I talked to Mac a few times in the booth,” Kafelnikov said. “He was actually giving me a hard time, ‘How come such an accomplished player like you doesn’t serve and volley as much as the other guys?’

“I’m not natural serve and volleying. I don’t feel comfortable when I’m serving and volleying. Like I said, today was different story.” Kuerten, who endured a five-set marathon in the third round, needed medical attention from trainer Doug Spreen after the first set, but refused to use it as an excuse.

“I think if you don’t get upset when you lose, it’s very bad,” Kuerten said. “It’s very bad. You get comfortable with losing, it’s not fine. So I feel disappointed and I feel frustrated. Also maybe tonight I can have a good dinner, drink one beer, go out. So if I win I didn’t have this chance. That’s the good part.”

The charm of Kuerten is his laid-back nature. He may be the least stressed-out No. 1. Three French Open titles are his and he skipped Wimbledon and isn’t obsessed by winning a Grand Slam on another surface.

Kafelnikov maintains Kuerten has to win someplace else to be considered a truly elite player in this era.

“Absolutely, he’s going to have to if he wants to prove to the rest of the people that he’s best player of all time,”’ he said.

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