March 06, 2007	Tuesday	Safar 16, 1428

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LAS VEGAS, March 5: Second-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt defeated fourth-seeded Austrian Jurgen Melzer 6-4, 7-6 (12/10) here on Sunday to claim the 416,000-dollar Tennis Channel Open.

Hewitt, the former world No. 1 who is now ranked 20th in the world, captured his 26th career title. He also extended his run of seasons with at least one title to 10 straight, the best such streak among active players.

Hewitt improved on his performance here last year, when he finished runner-up to American James Blake. “It is a big win,” Hewitt said. “After the US Open last year I didn't play until the Australian summer, this year. I had to take the whole indoor season off and that was rough, not only for me and my rhythm for tennis but also mentally and trying to get back.”

Hewitt missed eight weeks last year with a knee injury and lost in the third round of the Australian Open in January. He retired from a match in Marseille in early February with a hamstring injury, which also forced him to withdraw from the tournament in Rotterdam later in the month.

“My goal coming into this tournament was not to get injured, not to re-injure my hamstring,” he said. “That wasn't easy in Rotterdam, going there, practising and then pulling out and watching everyone else play. But that probably made me hungrier this week.”

After an exchange of early breaks, Hewitt broke in the ninth game and took the first set in the 10th game when Melzer slammed an overhead into the net.

But Melzer made Hewitt work to close it out in the second. He took a 4-1 lead, but Hewitt battled back, saving a set point at 5-6 en route to forcing the tiebreaker. He saved three more after falling behind 6-4 in the tiebreaker before finally closing the proceedings on his fourth match point.

“I had enough chances at least to take it to a third set,” said Melzer, who was denied a second career crown to go with the title he won in Bucharest last year. “I didn't take them – some of them maybe a little unlucky, some of them I might have choked. But when I wake up tomorrow I'll be happy I had a pretty good tournament here this week.”—AFP