Fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt has beaten Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-1 6-2 6-1 in just 83 minutes to reach the US Open final. In the most one-sided semi final at Flushing Meadow since the beginning of the open era in 1968, 20-year-old Hewitt took just 22 games to reach his first career Grand Slam final. "It's an unbelievable feeling right now," said Hewitt, who will face four-times US Open winner Pete Sampras in tomorrow's final.
Out of sorts Kafelnikov won the first three points of the match to reach 40-0 but it was all downhill from there for the former Australian and French Open champion. "Believe me I tried very hard," insisted the seventh-seed. "I had one game plan but unfortunately midway through the first set I realised the game plan wasn't working." The Russian won just two points on his second serve, committed 37 unforced errors and lost his serve eight times in 11 service games.
"Every time I tried to create something, unfortunately for me Lleyton was on top of his game," said Kafelnikov. "When he is that hot, it's very difficult to beat him. He chases every single ball and to make a winner no matter what kind of angle you're playing, it's very difficult."
Hewitt showed no signs of fatigue from his gruelling five-set quarter-final win over US prodigy Andy Roddick. "I was happy to get out of this one relatively quickly. Hopefully I can go out there and play well tomorrow," he said.
Tenth seed Pete Sampras reached his seventh US Open final by beating Marat Safin by 6-3, 7-6 (7/5) 6-3. The 30-year-old American avenged last year's US Open defeat at the hands of the Russian to reach his 17th Grand Slam final. He will now try to raise his all-time Grand Slam record to 14. Sampras has not won a title in the last 17 events since setting the record for Grand Slam wins at last year's Wimbledon.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
