Indian Wells, California, March 16: World number one and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt overwhelmed American qualifier Vince Spadea 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 to move into the final of the Pacific Life Open. The Australian had to come back from A 4-1 deficit in the first set to beat Spadea who was prepared to slug it out with Hewitt from the baseline.
Hewitt fought his way back into a first-set tiebreaker and jumped ahead 5-2 with a 117-mph ace.
But Spadea clawed his way back to trail 6-4 with a forehand pass down the line and then watched Hewitt double fault before the American did the same to gift the Wimbledon champion the set.
Hewitt never looked back and romped to an easy second set victory to set up a final against either former world number one Gustavo Kuerten or Rainer Schuettler, the Australian Open finalist. The Brazilian won the first set 6-2.
Spadea said that his game plunged after losing the tiebreaker. ''I didn't play a great tiebreaker,'' he said. I played too defensively. Then I ran out of gas a little bit.
''He exploits every part of your game and he's trying to wear you down.
''He plays great defence and if you give him a short ball, he plays efficient offence. He serves well enough to where he can put pressure on you.
''He returns really well. Once you feel like you've won a point and you're at net and he's scrambling to pass you, that's another one of his weapons. He's got a lot of weapons that are not so obvious as well as ones that are.''
Hewitt said: ''I've been getting better with each match,'' who won the title in Scottsdale last week and battled back from three match points down against Younes El Aynaoui in the first round here.
''I survived El Aynaoui and have had some pretty tough matches. I felt like I've gotten my rhythm a lot better during the week.''
Both the men's final and the women's final between Kim Clijsters and Lindsay Davenport will be contested on Sunday. Bureau Report