The fans had to set their alarm clocks on the final day of the Pacific Life Open. The men's final started at the ridiculously early hour of 10:30 in the morning, in order to accommodate U.S. television. As another accomodation to network executives, who hate to see tennis matches drag on, the Indian Wells final was shortened to a best-of-three for the first time since 1984. Fortunately, Sunday morning traffic tends to be light, because Lleyton Hewitt made such short work of Tim Henman tha t any late-arriving spectators might have missed the match.

In our final report of the tournament, we examine Hewitt's march to victory and the men's doubles triumph of Mark Knowles and Daniel Nestor, and conclude with The Honour Roll.

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Men's final

Lleyton Hewitt (1) def. Tim Henman (9), 6-1, 6-2
Men's final
Previous head-to-head: Hewitt leads 3-0

This was the fourth meeting between the world number one, Lleyton Hewitt (pictured at right) of Australia, and the most consistent player of 2002, Britain's Tim Henman. In their past encounters the matches were competitive, but Henman had only been able to take one set from the combative little Aussie speedster. Sadly for the spectacle today, Hewitt was sharp and Henman struggled badly, and the result was a rout.

Set one

The final's first set was as nightmarish for Henman as it was solid for Hewitt. Henman's forehand, his weaker side, was positively abysmal, both from the ground and on the volley. "I got myself in the position I wanted to be in," noted Henman after the match, "but I hit 4, 5 or 6 short forehands into the tape. These are shots I can't afford to miss." Henman was engaging in typical English understatement: he committed 17 forehand errors in the match, two less than Hewitt made in total. Henman got off to a rocky start, losing his serve in the first game thanks mainly to 3 botched forehands. In turn, Hewitt turned in a nervous game two that saw the Aussie double-fault twice and drop his serve at love.

This was to be the only game Henman would win in the set. The Brit was so abysmal that he never held a game point on his serve in the entire set. Hewitt's habitually solid play had something to do with this, but Henman's struggles on the forehand side prevented the set from being at least competitive.

Set two

The crowd, such that it was (there were a number of empty seats), now tried to rally the floundering Henman back into the match. Tim responded, bringing about a break point with a fine, stretch backhand volley. But Hewitt fought off the break chance, and two more Henman forehand errors gave Hewitt the game. Then Henman got in trouble on his serve at 0-1, 15-40, as Tim's coach Larry Stefanki looked on glumly. But the Englishman saved both break points with strong net play and reached game point ? the f irst game point of the match on his own serve ? with a service winner. When Hewitt made only his 10th error so far, a backhand into the net, Henman could rejoice at finally holding his serve for the first time today.

Errors were now creeping into Hewitt's game. Henman had a golden opportunity to break the Aussie again at 1-1, but pulled a slice backhand wide on break point. On the second deuce Hewitt came to the net behind a forehand and powered a winning overhead, followed by a fist pump. Hewitt pulled out the game when he pounced on a Henman shot that popped off the top of the net, setting up an easy putaway winner for the Aussie. Hewitt was now turning up his fabled intensity level, and also showing impressive variety in his fist-pumping technique. With Henman serving at 1-2, 15-30, Hewitt earned double break point on a cross-court backhand passing shot, followed by a windmilling uppercut fist-pump and a throaty cry of "C'MON!" At 15-40, Hewitt lobbed to Henman's backhand: Henman put a difficult high backhand in play, but Hewitt unleashed a perfect crosscourt pass, punctuated by a leaping fist pump.

Henman was now down 1-3, but to his credit kept fighting, attacking Hewitt's second serve and finally converting a break point with a tasty drop volley. This was the last game Henman was to win. At 2-3, Henman yet again lost his serve: Hewitt had three break points, and converted on the third by driving a ball at Henman's body ? Henman, jammed, could not put his volley in play.

After an easy Hewitt hold, Henman served at 2-5 to say in a match that looked like it had already slipped away. When Henman pulled a low volley wide, it was 15-40, double match point. Hewitt failed to convert on the first when he netted a forehand pass, but made a forehand pass on his second. After 1 hour, 21 minutes, it was over, and Hewitt could savour his first Tennis Masters Series title along with happy spectators Jason Stoltenberg (coach) and Kim Clijtsers (romantic interest). Make the final: 6- 1, 6-2, Hewitt. The last shot of this final was fired about noon, surely making this the earliest-finishing final in tennis history.

The ever-popular trophy ceremony

Accepting the runner-up trophy and cheque, the disappointed "Gentleman Tim" was as classy as one would expect him to be. "Lleyton has played phenomenal tennis," he told the crowd. "From the players' point of view, he's setting the benchmark." Henman then apologized to the fans. "Sorry I couldn't make it a little bit longer, but my opponent obviously had something to do with that."

Hewitt was then summoned to accept a $392,000 cheque as well as the rather odd winner's trophy, a replica of a statue of a rampant whale that can be found on the lawn of the tournament sponsor's headquarters. When asked after the match when what he thought of the trophy, Lleyton thought for a few seconds, nodded, and answered diplomatically, "It's strange, saw it come out on the court. But yeah, it's nice, unique anyway." Hewitt began by congratulating Henman "on a great week." "Masters Series tournam ents are so tough, we have the best 64 players in the world. Good luck next week." He than thanked "my coach Jason [Stoltenbeg] and my girl friend Kim." Then he thanked the American crowd, which he thinks appreciates his feisty displays of emotion. "I love playing in America. I love showing a lot of emotion and I can do that in America." Note that Lleyton obviously feels comfortable in the land of the stars and stripes: he has an 18-match winning streak on American hard courts.

Post-mortem

Lleyton Hewitt looked every inch a world number one this week, dropping just a set (to Andrei Pavel in the second round). The Aussie is now undefeated with two titles since recovering from the chicken pox he contracted in his homeland. When he's playing with the confidence he has now, his combativeness, consistency, speed and accuracy make him very difficult to beat, and an improving serve makes him an even more difficult opponent than he was last year.

Hewitt's level of confidence these days is stratospheric. "It gets to a big match, a big time sort of show-time match, and it doesn't worry me at all. I play with no fear," said Lleyton. With the Indian Wells title he widens his lead at the top of the 52-week rankings, and moves to #5 in the Champions Race for 2002. Certainly he will be the man to beat in Miami next week as well.

His thoroughly beaten opponent Henman reflected on what kind of player is most likely to penetrate the Aussie's armour, and pointed to powerful baseliners like Magnus Norman who have worried Hewitt in the past. "They can hit winners without giving him a target." But with Lleyton's speed, that style is difficult to carry out as well, as Thomas Enqvist found out in his semifinal loss. "You know, sooner or later it's going to stop," said Hewitt of his seeming invincibility.

As for Tim Henman, he can console himself with a fine run to the final. He has easily been the most consistent player week in, week out and this year (this was his third final this season), and has a #2 Champions Race ranking to show for it. But the ever-realistic Englishman knows it's a long season. "It's too early in the year to say I'm the second best player. I've been consistent and racked up some good wins. But it's not a sprint, is it?"

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Men's doubles final

The excellent duo of Bahamian Mark Knowles and Canada's Daniel Nestor collected the final whale trophy of the tournament, defeating the unseeded duo of Roger Federer and Max Mirnyi, 6-4, 6-4. This was sweet revenge for Knowles/Nestor, who lost to Federer/Mirnyi in the Rotterdam final last month. "We got 'em back today," joked Nestor during the trophy presentation. It was a high quality match played in front of an agreeably large crowd which stayed to get a little extra value for their money after the short singles final. Sadly, the goat horns must be awarded to Federer, since the young Swiss star was the only player to lose his serve in the final, early in each set.

The champions have excelled this year. Indian Wells was their third title of the year, after the Australian Open and Dubai. The Nestor/Knowles team had been one of the good doubles pairs on tour in the late 1990s, but split up prior to the 2000 Olympics so that Nestor could prepare for the Olympics with fellow Canadian Sébastien Lareau. The Lareau/Nestor combination, of course, went on to win the gold medal. After a year of sporadic success with different partners, Nestor suggested to Knowles after th e 2001 U.S. Open year that they rekindle their partnership. Since then, the veteran tandem has been playing better than ever. "Since we got back together we've been very consistent," commented Nestor. "Before we were very talented, but now we know how to hang in there."

The two are also good friends and like to kid each other, as we saw after the match. When asked what his goals were this year, Knowles answered, "It would be nice to be the number one doubles player in the world." Nestor broke up laughing, and quipped, "He's a real team player." Smiling, Knowles added without skipping a beat, "but the goal for me is to be number one as a team." Team unity was saved!

The opinionated Knowles also got some things off his chest about the lack of respect that he feels the doubles discipline is getting these days. We'll discuss this issue further in next week's Mr. Ed column.

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The Honour Roll

Finally, we pause to acknowledge the highlights and lowlights of another fascinating fortnight in the California desert.

• Satan's gift to the tournament:
  The high winds and chilly weather we had for too much of the second week. The sandstorms on Wednesday produced some of the worst conditions players have ever tried to play in.



• Endangered species of the tournament:
  This award should go to those whale trophies. But instead, we discern the honor to the 96-player draw, which few observers like. Giving a first round bye to 32 seeds makes for a sluggish start to the tournament. On The Line doesn't mind it, since it gives a chance to feature interesting players who otherwise would get little coverage. But just about everyone else hates it, because the tournament starts with two days of matches featuring players whom few fans or media know, let alone care about. Most observers feel that the women's tournament would be improved if it were shortened to a 64-player draw with no byes. The tournament organizers, understandably loathe to forego a couple of days of gate revenues, might be more inclined to eliminate the byes by expanding the draw to 128. But would the top players accept playing an extra match for the same prize money?



• Match of the tournament:
  Fabrice Santoro, a long time favourite of On The Line, was up to his magic again against Pete Sampras in the third round. Pistol Pete had all he could handle against the Frenchman's unique two-handed slices and tactical brilliance in a fascinating 6-3, 3-6, 7-5 win. The match also featured the worst call of the tournament, when, with Sampras serving at 5-5, 0-15 of the third set, a forehand by Pete that was clearly long was called in.



• Choke of the tournament:
  There is no other word to describe the collapse of 6th-seeded Sébastien Grosjean in the first round against Fabrice Santoro (again!). Leading 5-1 in the third set, Grosjean suddenly couldn't put his shots in play and lost the remaining games and the match. Serving twice for the match and once more at 5-5, Grosjean was never able to earn so much as a game point against his countryman. It was as if the spirit of Jana Novotna had invaded Sébastien's body.



• Revelation of the tournament:
  Many around tennis were expecting a breakthrough from prodigiously talented 18-year-old women's champion Daniela Hantuchova, but no-one, not even her coach, expected it quite this soon. A tall, smooth-stroking player who goes for her shots and possesses savvy and maturity beyond her years, she has suddenly stamped her mark on the women's game. The pretty Slovak also has the charisma thing going: the small band of young men eagerly following her matches grew larger as the week went on. Honoura ble mention to our unseeded women's semifinalist, Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi, who gave Hantuchova her toughest match of the tournament. And we must give a plug to On The Line's first-week mascot, Danish qualifier Eva Dyrberg, who upset 11th-seeded Magdalena Maleeva and reached the third round. Eva may have made it at least one round further had it not been for a wrist injury that flared up when she was up a set and a break over Anna Smashnova. We are happy to say that after resting the wrist for two days, the Dane with the killer inside-out forehand was back on the practice courts and looked fine.



• Class act of the tournament:
  What a pleasure it is to listen to Todd Martin speak! His intelligence is complemented with a dry, biting sense of humour. A surprise semifinalist here as a wild card, Martin is clearly proud of what he accomplished this week as well as in his career, but without vanity. Always respectful of his opponents, unless he feels they have disrespected him. The 31-year-old has grown comfortably into the role of the tour's elder statesman, and he wears it well. When he retires, surely in the not-too -distant future, he will probably not be missed as much as he should be. Honourable mention to Tim Henman who is, well, a more reserved version of his good friend Martin.



• Geezers of the tournament:
  Todd Martin (again) and Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, two members of the 30-plus brigade, gave some hope to the oldsters, by having a good run to the late rounds and showing the whippersnappers a thing or two. Todd notched a big upset over young German star Tommy Haas, while Arantxa let rising young Czech star Daja Bedanova know that the geezers still have a few tricks up their sleeves. And yes, I suppose we should add 30-year-old men's semifinalist Pete Sampras to the mix!



• Nearly-explosive international incident of the tournament:
  On Thursday, after his narrow win over Fabrice Santoro, Pete Sampras commented that he was happy to have won, and was looking forward to Saturday. Problem was, his next match was Friday, against German Rainer Schuettler. A German reporter took umbrage at this, and suggested that Sampras was looking past her country's player. Sampras, obviously taken taken aback, pointedly said, "Sorry, tomorrow," and gave Schuettler fulsome praise. Sampras closed his interview by saying, "Just taking it one match at a time," and adding with a smile, "I don't want to offend anyone in here." "Especially not Germans," laughed the reporter good-naturedly. "Yeah," smiled Pete, "I have a German trainer, I know what that's like." A budding bilateral crisis had been defused.