Former world number ones Roger Federer and Lleyton Hewitt were set to renew their rivalry when they met in the final of the ATP grass-court Halle tournament yesterday.
Both ended German hopes in Saturday’s semi-finals with Hewitt beating Benjamin Becker 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/3), 6-2, and Federer seeing off Philipp Petzschner 7-6 (7/3), 6-4.
Federer will be bidding to notch up his 16th straight victory over the Australian in their 25th meeting.
PHOTO: EPA
“We’ve known each other for years and once played doubles together in Wimbledon and I always looked up to him,” the Swiss said. “It is something special to play against him.”
Hewitt, the 2002 Wimbledon champion, said: “He’s [Federer] obviously the best grass-court player around.”
“It’s a good test for me to go out there. I’m going to have to obviously play extremely well and execute what I want to do and try and put him under some kind of pressure,” he said.
Federer, 28, needed one hour and 31 minutes to get past Petzschner.
The Australian Open champion came back from a break down twice in the first set to win the tie-break and a break in the fifth game of the second set put him on the way to victory.
Hewitt needed more than two hours to get past 52nd-ranked Becker who claimed the first set in a tie-break.
The German came back from 3-5 down in the second set to force another tie-break. Hewitt got an early break in the third set and sealed the tie in two hours and 23 minutes.
Hewitt is bidding to win his first title since lifting the US men’s clay court championship last year.
■AEGON CHAMPIONSHIPS
AFP, LONDON
Mardy Fish set up an all-US final against close friend Sam Querrey in the ATP grass-court event at Queen’s Club with a straight sets win over Spain’s Feliciano Lopez on Saturday.
Fish, serving powerfully, defeated Lopez 6-3, 6-4 with the Spaniard unable to reproduce the form that had seen him defeat Rafael Nadal in the previous round.
Earlier on Saturday, the 1.98m Querrey defeated Germany’s Rainer Schuettler 6-7 (9/11), 7-5, 6-3.
The two US players share a coach, David Nainkin, and Fish said after his semi-final success that he was looking forward to playing Querrey in the final.
“Yeah, we are very good friends,” Fish said. “We live close to each other in the States and we share the same coach. It will be fun.
“I haven’t played him in three years. We’ll probably put dinner on it or something, so it’s a win win, at least,” he said.
Fish added: “I practise with Sam all the time almost when we’re home. When we’re all home together, it’s almost every day. It shouldn’t be a fairly new match-up for us,” he said.
Querrey lost a close first set on a tie-break and did not earn a break point on Schuettler’s serve until the 13th game of the second set.
But he then took charge and a service break early in the final set saw Querrey heading to the final.
■AEGON CLASSIC
AFP, BIRMINGHAM, ENGLAND
Maria Sharapova put herself in a position to win a third Edgbaston title after defeating US qualifier Alison Riske 6-2, 4-6, 6-1 in the semi-finals of the WTA grass-court event on Saturday.
But victory was far from straightforward for the former Wimbledon champion.
The 19-year-old Riske had never won a match in a main WTA tour event before this tournament but, after Sharapova threatened a quick victory by taking the first set 6-2, the teenager leveled the match with a 6-4 second set win.
However, she could not maintain that level of play and Sharapova won the deciding set 6-1.
Top seed Li Na was also taken to three sets in her semi-final before beating France’s Aravane Rezai 6-1, 3-6, 6-3.
Sharapova, 23, lost to Li in last year’s semi-finals and is looking forward to the chance of revenge.
“It’ll be good to play her again,” Sharapova told the BBC. “A year makes a big difference. I certainly don’t like losing to the same person twice in a row — I’m a big competitor.”
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