Federer Shows He’s Unrivaled

And so, life moves forward on the tennis tour -- the wait for the next great men’s rivalry turning from expectation into wishful thinking after Roger Federer of Switzerland defeated Lleyton Hewitt of Australia, 6-2, 6-4, 6-4, in Sunday’s final of the Pacific Life Open.

Four words describe the state of affairs: Roger and the dodgers.

That would be Federer and a cast of rivalry dodgers. There had been high hopes for Andy Roddick, but he can’t even reach finals against Federer these days. Hewitt now has lost seven consecutive times to Federer, including 12 consecutive sets.

And don’t even bring up Marat Safin, the only man to beat Federer in 27 matches in 2005. Federer didn’t quite sniff at the notion of Safin as a great possible rival but was pleasantly dismissive.

“I don’t quite agree it’s only Marat, you know, he’s got a chance just because he beat me last time,” Federer said of his loss to Safin at the Australian Open in the semifinals in January.

And lest we forget ...

“I have a great record [6-2] against him, as well. Don’t forget that, please,” Federer said, smiling.

It has been an interesting evolution. Mr. Self-Effacing has taken on the slight swagger of a champion. Granted, Federer isn’t going to start sounding like Muhammad Ali or run around guaranteeing victories Joe Namath-style.

But, two things: At least he’s honest and he’s absolutely right.

Federer has won a record 17 consecutive finals, dating to October 2003. Since winning Wimbledon in July, Federer has lost just three times -- to Dominik Hrbaty in Cincinnati, Tomas Berdych at the Olympics and Safin.

There was little danger of that happening Sunday as he hit 15 aces and 41 winners in the victory at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. The second-seeded Hewitt was suffering from injured toes, which became a problem midway through the third set of his semifinal match against Roddick. He said the right toe was worse than the left, and the injury could keep him out of the upcoming tournament in Miami.

“It’s all inflamed,” he said. “Nail is going left, right and center,” he said. “It’s happened a fair few times in the past, but this is probably as bad as it’s been.”

Not exactly the way you want to approach a final against the defending champion and top seeded player. Federer immediately sensed something was off.

“I think Lleyton wasn’t at his best,” he said. “I felt that very clearly, very quickly, as well. I was definitely using that to my advantage. So who knows, if Lleyton would have been better off ... it would have been a very different match.

“I have great respect for him, playing all the way through the match, because I really had the feeling he was hurting, and he had to change up his game to actually have a slight chance ... and he did. That’s a lot of credit to him.”

Hewitt paid homage to Federer and his sense of confidence. “He knows when to pull the trigger,” he said. “He’s sort of playing on autopilot out there. He just has a lot of self-belief ... under the big situations at the moment.”

The match did feature an epic point. It came 41 minutes into the match, in the third game of the second set. Hewitt won it with a lunging forehand volley into the open court and went sprawling, saving a break point. But that’s the Reader’s Digest version of the 45-shot point, filled with stunning athleticism.

Many longtime tennis observers called it one of the best points they had seen.

“It was a great point, one of my best in my life,” Federer said. “That is fantastic. That it ended up the way it did, it was a winner from his or my racket was great.”

Federer recounted the rally, offering a play by play: “It started off normal, just a regular rally, backhand cross-court, a couple of good shots. Crowd got into it. He starts drop-shotting. You’re like, ‘OK, this is getting interesting.’ He gives me the lob. I just run back and I hope I stay in the rally.

“Hit a good lob. He gets an unbelievable angle on his, kind of an overhead. This is when you really know, ‘This is my chance to win the point.’ It starts all over again. You have to run back.

“I really got surprised the way I got the second one back, [my] back towards the net. I really knew on the last forehand on the run, ‘This is my last chance because I’m not coming back after this forehand.’ It was a 50-50 chance for him, and he took the right side. I hit it well. He could have missed it.”

Said Hewitt: “I remember we both should have won it a few times. The lobs didn’t quite go over his head far enough. He kept always getting a swing on his forehand.”

The crowd of 14,247 gave them about a minute-long standing ovation. Hewitt was asked the last time that had happened.

“Maybe after you win a Davis Cup,” he said. “Davis Cup final or something, in five sets. That’s about it. Not normally after a point. Especially when neither of you are from America either.”

Hewitt had the best, and most appropriate line, about the point and the day, saying: “Yeah, at least I won something.”

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2005 in Review

Roger Federer’s year through

Sunday:

* Record: 26-1.

* Titles: 4 (Qatar, Rotterdam, Dubai, Indian Wells).

* Prize money: $1,186,728.

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What’s Next

NASDAQ-100 at Miami:

* When: Wednesday-April 3.

* Who: The world’s top 96 men and women’s singles players and 32 men’s and women’s doubles teams.