Tennis: Federer Wins Us Open

After another display of near faultless tennis, Roger Federer crushed 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt to take his third grand slam of the year.

Indeed, the manner of the number one seed's win was even more emphatic that his defeat of Tim Henman in the semi-final.

He came flying out of the blocks to take the first set 6-0 in just 18 minutes. He then carried on the momentum to break his shell-shocked opponent early in the second set. However, Hewitt, who was on a 16-match winning streak himself, then rallied and broke the Swiss back to take the set into a tie-break.

However, the Australian, who hadn't previously lost a set at Flushing Meadows, was not able to press home the psychological advantage and lost the tie-break 7-3.

After that, Hewitt, who also lost to Federer in the quarter-finals of both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, looked beaten and succumbed 6-0 again in the third set, to hand Federer the one million US dollars first prize.

Federer becomes the first man since Mats Wilander in 1988 to win three grand slams (The US Open, Wimbledon and the Australian Open) in one year, a feat even the great Pete Sampras did not achieve. The only blemish on his record was a third-round French Open defeat to clay specialist and eventual champion Gustavo Kuerten in June.

Presumably Sampras will also be fearing for his record of most career grand slam wins too. Federer, who also won Wimbledon in 2003, already has four titles to his name, and he is still only 23. He is also the first man in the Open era to win his first four grand slam finals.

His record in 2004 is an astounding 64 wins and six defeats, during which run he has claimed nine titles.