posted on Sep, 12 2004 @ 04:15 AM
NEW YORK (AP) - In heat or wind, before a crowd for or against him, facing Andre Agassi's baseline bashing or Tim Henman's get-to-the-net style: When
Roger Federer is on his game, it doesn't seem to matter what he has to deal with.
Now Lleyton Hewitt of Australia will try to disrupt him.
The top-ranked Federer moved within a victory of becoming the first man since 1988 to win three Grand Slam tournaments in a year, beating No. 5 Henman
6-3, 6-4, 6-4 Saturday in the U.S. Open semifinals.
"I feel very confident out on the court," Federer said. "It's important that every day, I wake up, I'm 100 percent into tennis and ready to go."
In Sunday's final, Federer will play 2001 U.S. Open champion Hewitt, who was nearly flawless himself in eliminating No. 28 Joachim Johansson of Sweden
6-4, 7-5, 6-3. As Hewitt scrambled along the baseline, getting to everything Johansson offered, his sneakers squeaked with each step, sounding like
high-pitched bird chirps.
It was the first time since 1986 that no Americans were in the men's semifinals at the U.S. Open. Later Saturday, Svetlana Kuznetsova beat Elena
Dementieva 6-3, 7-5 the Open's first all-Russian women's final.
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