Hewitt confirms changing of the guard

Having cleared "Henman Hill", Lleyton Hewitt yesterday skipped up Pat Cash Creek, which now has steps in place of the heads Cashy clambered over in 1987. Hewitt was entitled to take this route. The 21-year-old from Adelaide not only became the first Australian men's singles champion here for 15 years, but he also saved the crowd from the spectacle of Cash wearing one of Sue Barker's tennis dresses, a sight possibly worse than the male streaker who hurdled the net yesterday.

Hewitt's final hurdle was David Nalbandian, a 20-year-old Argentinian competing in his first senior grass court tournament and finding himself on Centre Court as though stepping with Alice through the looking glass. He coped as well as he was able, but Hewitt, the master of the situation, won 6-1, 6-3, 6-2 after one hour and 56 minutes.

It was an unusual climax to the tournament. Wimbledon patrons are not accustomed to watching two men duel from the baseline for the most prestigious title in the sport. Yesterday the birthplace of serve and volley came close to replicating Roland Garros in Paris, where scrapping for points in lengthy rallies on slow clay courts is the norm.

For years, there have been complaints that Wimbledon's grass courts favoured the big servers and had fallen victim to the modern power game restricted to one, two, or three-shot points. Yesterday we were treated to a sample of the alternative as Hewitt and Nalbandian traded shots chiefly from the back of the court, relying on angles and the depth of strokes to out-manoeuvre each other.

Whether that is preferable or not is in the eye of the beholder. What seems certain is that we shall be seeing a lot more of Hewitt, who demonstrated why he is the world No 1 from the start of the tournament to the finish, surviving one major crisis in the quarter-finals, where he held four match points against Sjeng Schalken in the third set and eventually squeaked through in the fifth set, 7-5.

Hewitt may not be everybody's can of XXXX, but his brash, bouncy style has refreshed the men's game as it goes through the latest changing of the guard, with Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi, standard bearers throughout the 1990s, attempting to hold back the years.

Significantly, Hewitt is the first counter-puncher to win the title since Agassi, 10 years ago, withstood Goran Ivanisevic's blistering serve and triumphed in a heart-stopping fifth set. Hewitt did not have to weather an Ivanisevic-type blitz yesterday, but had to outwit a comparative novice whose real achievement was in representing his country in the men's singles final for the first time and showing the whole of Latin America and Europe that clay-court skills can be translated to any surface.

A recurring debate during the fortnight concerned the pace of Centre Court, a subject which had provoked comment from several players, including Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman, who said it was slow enough to be a clay court, and Tim Henman, who did not go that far but would have preferred a slicker surface.

The combination of a relatively dry spring and the introduction of rye-grass in the mix appeared to produce the higher bounce of the ball usually to be found on medium- pace concrete courts. That did not save some big-name hard-court players from disappearing early, but in Nalbandian's case, grass was grass.

Breaking with tradition, the All England Club allowed the Argentinian world No 32 half an hour to practise on Centre Court yesterday morning before he competed in his first match in tennis's hallowed arena. When the match started, however, it seemed that Nalbandian's brief preview had left him even more in awe of the place.

Hewitt, treating the lawn as if he had inherited it by beating Tim Henman, moved swiftly into his smooth-running stride, breaking his nervous opponent in the first and third games. Nalbandian managed to loosen up sufficiently to hold serve for 1-4 and threatened Hewitt's serve in the next game.

The Australian played his way out of trouble, and signs of stress returned to Nalbandian's face, framed by the straggly makings of a beard, as the Argentinian struggled throughout the seventh game, double-faulting to lose the set after 33 minutes. During that time, Hewitt had converted three of 10 break opportunities, and was eager to improve the ratio of success.

Rain delayed play for 10 minutes after Hewitt held serve in the opening game of the second set, time enough for the streaker interlude before play resumed with Hewitt breaking for 2-0. At this point it seemed that Nalbandian would do well to avoid total humiliation, but he was able to recover the break in the next game with an impressive backhand lob-volley after an exhilarating exchange of lobs and smashes.

After a second rain delay, this time lasting 33 minutes, Nalbandian, serving at 3-4, was passed by a forehand drive to 15-40 and netted a forehand on break point. Hewitt served out the set to 30, finishing with an ace. Both players saved break points early in the third set, Nalbandian again the first to lose his serve, passed by Hewitt's backhand drive down the line for 2-1.

The game Argentinian fought back, winning a rally with a backhand drive to level at 2-2. That was Nalbandian's last act of defiance. He was broken in the next game and then double-faulted twice to lose the seventh game. Hewitt, serving for the match, double-faulted at 40-0, but made amends by luring Nalbandian into hitting a forehand long. Hewitt fell backwards in celebration before picking himself up and heading for Pat Cash Creek.

"I can remember being at my grandparents' house when I was six, watching the Pat Cash match," he said. "For me it was a huge thing to see an Australian win such a big tournament. I hope every kid playing in their local club in Australia will realise you can dream, and if you put in a lot of hard work, your dream is not out of reach." Hewitt had an advantage, of course. He plays like a dream.