WASHINGTON, 24 August 2004 — Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt further fine-tuned his game ahead of the US Open with a convincing 6-3, 6-4 win on Sunday over Gilles Muller to capture the $500,000 Washington Open.
The former world No. 1 collected his third win of 2004 and first in six months in smoothly subduing a late charge from the 21-year-old from Luxembourg. Muller, who upset Andre Agassi in the semifinals, entered the event with only one career ATP win.
Hewitt will move into a world number five ranking as a result of this week in which he lost only one set and polished his form for an assault on the last Grand Slam of the season which starts in one week.
“It was nice to get another win, but my last final was only two weeks ago,” said Hewitt, beaten by Agassi in Cincinnati.
The Australian won a stretch of eight out of nine games at mid-match before battling on to the victory in 77 minutes. Muller, the first man from Luxembourg to play for an ATP title, was disappointed only by the fact that he didn’t perform well on the day.
“He was just too good today,” Muller said. “I was excited after beating Agassi, but I knew I had another match to play.
“I had a chance, if I had been playing like I did yesterday, it would have been closer. But I can’t lose serve four times in a match.”
Davenport Wins Cincinnati Tennis
American Lindsay Davenport captured her fourth consecutive title beating Russia’s Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 in the final of the $170,000 WTA Cincinnati Open on Sunday.
The 28-year-old top seed was never broken in the match and fired 32 winners in the 67 minute match.
“She had a long match last night, which probably was more to my benefit since I didn’t have to play yesterday,” Davenport said.
With the victory, Davenport registers her fourth straight title and will take a 17-match winning streak into the US Open. She has also won at Stanford, Los Angeles and San Diego this year.
Davenport looked in great form and only struggled in her first-round match which she won in three sets after dropping the first set. She advanced to the final with wins over No. 7 Flavia Pennetta and No. 4 Marion Bartoli, of France, by walkover. Davenport elected not to defend her title at the Olympics in Athens.
Davenport improved to 5-0 all-time against Zvonareva.
