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By SHARON GINN
© St. Petersburg Times, published September 8, 2001
NEW YORK -- They have met only three times, not 32. But after Thursday night's five-set match between Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt, the talk was that it someday could be a rivalry to approach Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi.
"He handles my power better than anyone in the world," said Roddick, 19. "I laced some balls (Thursday), just hit them really hard, and he got them back."
Hewitt, 20, outlasted Roddick 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-4 in a quarterfinal that ran until 12:41 a.m. Hewitt won minutes after Roddick became incensed at chair umpire Jorge Dias, who overruled a linesman on the far side of the court. Down 4-5, Roddick was serving to stay in the match.
Roddick called Dias "an absolute moron" for making the call, and replays seemed to bear out Roddick's statement that Dias was wrong. Afterward, he said he felt he was robbed of at least one point.
"Who is to say I would have won anyway?" he said. "But when you start off a game love-15, it puts that much more pressure on you."
Dias has been the subject of plenty of public abuse this year. At Wimbledon, he drew a tirade from eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic.
NO REFUND FOR YOU: Being a Williams sister isn't all glamor. It means not just getting large checks (like today's combined purse of $1.275-million) but writing them.
Venus said she has two responsibilities: "All I have to do is live and pay taxes."
Serena has described herself as an online shopaholic, but said if she takes home the $850,000 winning check she won't be indulging.
"Probably the whole check will go, unfortunately, to Uncle Sam," she said. "My tax return right now is ridiculous."
HISTORY AND THE WILLIAMSES: Venus and Serena Williams are not the first sisters to meet in the final of a Grand Slam. In 1884, Maud Watson beat sister Lilian 6-8, 6-3, 6-3 in the inaugural women's final at Wimbledon.
But it will be the first time two African-Americans have played in a Slam final.
POOR MAC: John McEnroe, who still talks as if he's bitter that he missed out on the chance to win the mixed doubles Wimbledon title with Steffi Graf in 1999, now has something else to grumble about.
On Friday, an injured Boris Becker withdrew from the winner-take-$100,000 exhibition match with McEnroe scheduled for tonight after the women's final. Becker has been diagnosed with tarsal tunnel syndrome of the left foot, an injury he sustained in practice recently. The injury worsened and he was advised by doctors not to play.
MEN'S DOUBLES: The new U.S. Davis Cup doubles team lost in three sets in the men's final. Zimbabwe's Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett won the first-set tiebreak, then pulled out a 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 6-3 victory over Don Johnson and Jared Palmer.