Hewitt Edges Roddick in Third Tiebreaker

Finally, a flaw was found in Roger Federer. Not his tennis, his prognostications.

Shortly after dismissing Argentine journeyman Guillermo Canas, 6-3, 6-1, in the first men’s semifinal of the Pacific Life Open on Saturday, Federer predicted that Andy Roddick would win the second.

“I give a little edge here to Andy,” he said. “He’s playing on home soil. You never underestimate that.”

Nor should you ever underestimate the staying power and shotmaking of Roddick’s opponent in that second semifinal, Australian Lleyton Hewitt. He went toe-to-toe with the stronger, bigger-serving Roddick for 2 hours 33 minutes and won, 7-6 (2), 6-7 (3), 7-6 (4), by the margin of perhaps half an inch.

Match point of Hewitt’s thriller, before a pro-Roddick crowd that had three-quarters of the 16,100-seat Indian Wells Tennis Garden rocking, was a backhand down the line by Roddick that just missed the sideline.

To win this one, Hewitt, who will play top-seeded Federer in today’s final, had to withstand 25 aces, 48 winners and survive a break point at 5-5 of the final set that was, as Roddick admitted afterward, effectively a match point. Hewitt, giving up three inches and 30 pounds to the 6-foot-2, 195-pound Roddick, used his court speed, savvy and instinctive timing to stay with Roddick.

From 4-4 of the final tiebreaker, he served a 110-mph winner that Roddick could only foul-tip, then engaged Roddick in another baseline duel that ended when Roddick netted a forehand. On match point, he kicked in a second serve and eventually worked his way to the net, forcing Roddick to try to pass him, and resulting in the backhand that barely missed.

For his part, Roddick was at peace with his effort, even though he has now lost to Hewitt six of seven times, including this year’s Australian Open semifinal in which he lost two tiebreakers in a four-set loss.

“I’m disappointed but not upset,” Roddick said. “It took the best of Lleyton to beat me. I feel like I can take a lot of positives away from this.”

Hewitt was obviously happier afterward but also philosophical.

“Any time you play a third-set tiebreaker, it’s a lucky door prize,” he said.

“I just felt like I dictated play when I needed to, I hustled when I needed to, I got those extra balls back when I needed to.”

That, in a nutshell, is what represents Hewitt’s best chance against Federer, who is currently as close to being unbeatable as anybody on the tour has been in years. He did lose that Australian semifinal to Marat Safin of Russia, who then beat Hewitt in the final, but he has lost nothing else this year and will enter today’s final with a season record of 25-1.

Hewitt will come in at 18-2 and will still be a huge underdog, even if he didn’t have to play longer Saturday, later into the day and a much more physically taxing match. And even if he wasn’t facing an early start today and a best-of-five-set final.

“Hewitt will have enough,” Roddick said. “The thing is, will he have enough to beat Roger?”

Currently, it is questionable that anybody, rested or not, has enough to beat Federer, who hasn’t lost a set here and hasn’t even been pushed except by Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, who fell in two tiebreakers.

Said Canas, vanquished in just over an hour: “If I play my best, [Federer] will do it better. He is not at the same level as the rest of us.”

Hewitt and Federer have played 15 times and Federer leads, 8-7. But Federer has won the last six and has been so dominant recently that he has a 40-1 record going back to the start of last year’s U.S. Open.

Sometimes, it sounds as if he’s a bit surprised when he is pushed.

“I had to actually fight to actually really play well today,” he said. “He was giving me a hard time. I had a few tough couple of games. You know, once I got through that, my rhythm started to pick up and I started to play better. I’m happy the way the match ended. That’s very promising for tomorrow.”

Not for Hewitt.