American tennis player Andre Agassi takes a break in his semi-final match against Australian Lleyton Hewitt at the Australian Hardcourt Championships in Adelaide Saturday, January 10, 1998. Agassi lost the match 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (4-7).AP Photo/News Ltd

Lightly regarded teen-ager Hewitt wins title

Web posted January 12, 1998

Associated Press

Lleyton Hewitt, an Australian high school student ranked 550th in the world, won the Australian Men's Hardcourt Championship Sunday and became the lowest-ranked player ever to win an ATP Tour event.

Hewitt, 16 years, 11 months, beat fellow Aussie Jason Stoltenberg 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4) at Adelaide. He is the youngest champion since Michael Chang, who was 16 years, 7 months, when he won the TransAmerica Open at San Francisco Oct. 2, 1988.

``I do not think they (the players) knew how to play me and had not seen a lot of my matches,'' said Hewitt, who earned $45,000 for the win in only his second ATP Tour event.

Stoltenberg, who is ranked 79th, knew he was in a battle after a marathon opening game, which went to five deuces before he held serve.

``I had my chances today and I could have won the match when I broke back in the second set, but then I played a silly service game,'' said Stoltenberg, who was returning from an injury layoff. ``Maybe the loss is from not playing.''

In the doubles final, Australians Joshua Eagle and Andrew Florent beat No. 2 seeds Ellis Ferreira of South Africa and American Rick Leach 6-4, 6-7 (3-7) 6-3.

At the Qatar Open in Doha, Petr Korda of the Czech Republic won the ninth title of his career, beating a hobbling Fabrice Santoro of France 6-0, 6-3.

Santoro, who played two singles matches and one doubles match Saturday, was slowed by a sore left knee against Korda, who won this tournament for the second time in three years.

At the Sydney International tournament, Venus Williams opened 1998 with an easy win when she advanced past Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania, who defaulted because of a hamstring injury after losing the first set 6-4.

Williams' 16-year-old sister, Serena, qualified for the main draw of the tournament with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Laura Golarsa of Italy. She will face another promising qualifier, 15-year-old Mirjana Lucic of Croatia.

Bulgaria's Maggie Maleeva won her first-round match, downing Belgium's Sabine Appelmans 6-1, 1-6, 6-3. Austrian Barbara Paulus beat Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 6-0, 6-2.

Defending champion Martina Hingis had a first-round bye.

At the Tasmanian International women's tournament in Hobart, Australia, Belgium's Laurence Courtois and Marion Maruska of Austria won their opening-round matches.

Courtois beat Magu Serna of Spain 6-1, 6-1 and Maruska defeated Spain's Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 7-6 (7-1), 7-6 (7-3).

The seeded players, led by top seed and defending champion Dominique van Roost of Belgium, play their first matches Monday.