Hewitt captures Scottsdale title

Lleyton Hewitt won his second Franklin Templeton title but his first crown of this season by beating his fellow Australian Mark Philippoussis 6-4, 6-4 in the final at Scottsdale, Arizona yesterday.

"It's been a wonderful week," said Hewitt, the world No 1 who won the same title in 2000. "It was fantastic preparation. I played solid out there. I took advantage of the chances that I had. I didn't hit a double-fault until the last game serving for the match. I felt like I played a very smart match out there."

Hewitt, who has played in only three tournaments this year, said his aim was to get matches under his belt before the tournaments at Indian Wells and Miami. He said: "I feel like when I'm match tough and match hard and played a lot of matches, I get that competitive winning spirit going."

Hewitt reached the final by beating the American Taylor Dent, 6-2, 6-4, while Philippoussis defeated Mariano Zabaleta, of Argentina, 6-3, 7-6. The top seed was impressive in dismantling one of the tour's hottest players in Dent, who entered the semi-final on an eight-match winning streak. Dent won at Memphis two weeks ago.

"Taylor was full of confidence and hitting the ball very well," Hewitt said. "I tried to step it up on his serve. I was actually standing in a little bit closer than other guys would against his serve. I was trying to make him play a lot of volleys. There's not a lot of guys who can return his serve as well as I did today."

Hewitt accepted a late wild card entry to the event after taking a month off as he seeks to regain the form that earned him five tournament titles in 2002. Philippoussis began the week ranked 90th in the world as he continues to battle with knee injuries. But he survived a gruelling second-set tie-break to outlast Zabaleta, 10-8.