Hewitt Cruises Past Upstart Muller, Claims Legg Mason Championship

While it only took second-seeded Leyton Hewitt one hour and 17 minutes to defeat Luxembourg’s Gilles Muller 6-3, 6-4 in the finals of the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. Sunday, the outcome was apparent even before the end of the first set.

An abundance of unforced errors and a failure to get many ground strokes past the fleet-footed Hewitt manifested itself in the form of slumped shoulders and many an exasperated look by Muller, who had earned a spot in the final by defeating top-seeded Andre Agassi in the semi-finals.

Muller put himself on his heels throughout the match, facing 16 break opportunities during the match. Hewitt looked sharp and refused to give his adversary an opening. After a lengthy first-set rally, Muller turned to the stands, shook his head and threw up his hands, clearly perplexed by his opponent’s speed and agility.

“Against Agassi, he's moving so good, but sometimes when you hit a good shot, the ball is not coming back,” Muller said. “But against Lleyton, the ball every time was coming back.”

Making his first appearance in a final, the 21-year-old showed little emotion compared to the fiery Hewitt, but showed some signs of life when he managed to break the Australian’s serve in the seventh game of the second set when Hewitt double faulted. Despite the swing in momentum, Muller failed to capitalize, handing the following game to Hewitt by committing four unforced errors to give the advantage back to Hewitt. However, the Aussie failed to hold serve, again double faulting and drawing the second set to 5-4.

“I served extremely well up to that point, probably as well as I served all tournament up to that point,” Hewitt said. “I just played two loose service games.”

Hewitt had eight aces in the match, compared to four double faults, though three of those double faults came in the second set.

With the chance to even the second set at five games apiece, Muller double faulted, giving Hewitt two break points, and on match point hit an attempted drop shot into the net to give Hewitt the victory.

“I was maybe a little too tight today,” Muller said. “I was not nervous because I told myself to just enjoy it, but he was so difficult to play, almost like you play against the wall.”

The Legg Mason was just the sixth ATP-level tournament for Muller, whose appearance in the finals will propel him into the top 100 of the rankings. Hewitt will play next at the TD Waterhouse Cup Championships in Long Island, N.Y. before beginning play at the U.S. Open in two weeks.