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Johansson Stuns Safin to Win Australian Open

Thomas Johansson broke down Marat Safin's power game with brilliant shot making of his own to win the Australian Open championship 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (4) Sunday.

Johansson won his first major title and spoiled Safin's 22nd birthday, making few mistakes after losing serve on the first game of the match to give the Russian the only service break he needed to take the set.

The 16th-seeded Johansson needed 25 Grand Slam tournaments to go beyond the quarterfinals. But in his first major final, he pushed the 2000 U.S. Open champion around with heavy serves and combinations of top spins, slices, flat drives and lethal drop shots.

Double faults hurt the ninth-seeded Safin in the service breaks that cost him the second and third sets.

In the second, Johansson reached deuce on a drop and lob combination. Four points later, after a double fault, Safin hit a backhand into the net and the Johansson had a break for 2-1.

In the third, Johansson started the seventh game with a drive and drop-shot combination, and gained a break for 4-3 when Safin double faulted on the last point.

In six other games in the match, Safin had to save break points to hold.

Johansson started the fourth set with a break on errors by Safin, and had a break point for 3-0. But Safin held and then broke for 2-2 with a backhand winner down the line.

In the final tiebreaker, Johansson reached 4-0 with a backhand crosscourt passing shot that left Safin sprawling. A deep serve return that forced an error made it 5-0.

At 6-1, Safin saved three match points with a forehand winner, an unreturnable serve and a miss by Johansson.

Then he drew Johansson in with a drop shot and lobbed over him — but the lob went just long, leaving the Swede to collect the $520,000 winner's check.

Unlike in the women's final Saturday, when defending champion Jennifer Capriati labored in 95-degree heat to overcome Martina Hingis, the two men played under generally gray skies with temperatures no higher than 81.

Both served at up to 130 mph, with Johansson winning the battle of aces 16-13.

A lustily cheering band of blue-and-yellow-clad Swedes greeted most of Johansson's aces with a chant ending in ``We like it!'' Johansson became the first Swede to win a Grand Slam title since Stefan Edberg took the U.S. Open in 1992.

Both players had to come back after trailing 2-1 in sets in their semifinal matches.

After needing only 28 minutes in his quarterfinal when Wayne Ferreira pulled out with an abdominal strain, Safin rebounded after a 50-minute rain delay for a 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 over seventh-seeded Tommy Haas. He had beaten Pete Sampras in the fourth round.

Johansson beat No. 26 Jiri Novak 7-6 (5), 0-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4.

Johansson's best previous Grand Slam results were reaching the U.S. Open quarterfinals in 1998 and 2000.

Safin, who also beat Sampras for the 2000 U.S. Open title, had back problems in early 2001 but reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon and the semifinals at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Sampras. At Wimbledon, he lost to eventual champion Goran Ivanisevic.

Hingis-Kournikova Win Doubles

In the singles final Saturday, Hingis faces top-seeded Jennifer Capriati, who beat her in the 2001 final.

"It's positive energy," Hingis said after the doubles victory.

The doubles final this year also was a comeback of sorts for the eighth-seeded partnership of Hingis and Kournikova, who split in 2000 and were both hindered by injuries last year.

The two chatted animatedly on changeovers and discussed strategy between points. Last year, the pair practiced doubles for a week with the help of Hingis' mother, Melanie Molitor, in Switzerland.

However, the gulf between their games is evident. Hingis, a five-time Grand Slam singles winner, used quick hands to intercept and put away balls at the net.

Kournikova, the endorsement queen who has not won a singles title, made frequent errors on her volleys and was reluctant to come to net on her serve. But she hit some big forehands from the baseline.

"Throughout the whole match, we were always up and up and winning, and we just couldn't close it out," said Hingis, who received a code violation for racket abuse when her serve was broken in the second set.

Sanchez-Vicario, a 30-year-old veteran of the tour and winner of three Australian Open doubles titles, was playing for the first time with Hantuchova. They were seeded 13th.

Hantuchova, 18, hit winners all around the court, but her game was erratic. Hingis said the Slovakian needed to learn more about "positioning and the doubles thinking."

Seeded 32nd in the singles, Hantuchova lost to Venus Williams in three sets in the third round. At 5-foot-11¼, Hantuchova is one of the tallest players on the tour.

"She needs a little experience," Hingis said. "She is definitely a prodigy. She has a great future ahead of her, if she takes advantage of it."

Hantuchova said she was honored to play with Sanchez-Vicario, a Spaniard who has won 14 Grand Slam titles: four singles, six doubles and four mixed doubles.

"There are so many things I can learn from her," said Hantuchova, who is scheduled to play a mixed doubles semifinal Saturday with partner Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe.

Hantuchova, Ullyett Win Mixed Doubles

Daniela Hantuchova and Kevin Ullyett each won their second Grand Slam title, beating Gaston Etlis and Paolo Suarez 6-3, 6-2 for the Australian Open mixed doubles championship Sunday.

Hantuchova added the Australian title to the Wimbledon mixed doubles championship she won with Leos Friedl last year. Hantuchova is 10-0 in Grand Slam mixed doubles matches.

``This is beyond my expectations. I've been in two mixed doubles (championships) and I haven't lost yet,'' Hantuchova said.

Hantuchova and Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario lost the women's doubles championship to Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova on Friday.

``I'm really happy because I was in the final of the doubles and missed that — I really wanted to take home one title,'' she said. ``It was excellent the way we played today, we were really aggressive.''

Ullyett teamed with Wayne Black to win the U.S. Open men's doubles title last September.

Capriati Defends Australian Title

 Jennifer Capriati produced the greatest comeback in a women's Grand Slam final to overcome Martina Hingis and defend her Australian Open title.

Capriati saved four match points before clinching a 4-6, 7-6 (7), 6-2 victory over Hingis in Saturday's championship decider at Melbourne Park, the scene last January of her personal comeback from a tumultuous past.

Saturday's win was her first defense of a major, and no woman has saved more match points and won a Grand Slam final.

The WTA, organizers of the women's tennis tour, said the previous record was set in 1889, when Blanche Bingley Hillyard saved three match points against Lena Rice before winning at Wimbledon.

``I'm not looking for a place in history,'' Capriati said. ``I think I have something already in there. I'm just looking for titles.''

Capriati has won three of the last five Grand Slam events. After her breakthrough 6-4, 6-3 championship win over Hingis at the last Australian Open, Capriati won the French Open and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.

``I had a lot to deal with out there. I had a lot on my shoulders — being the defending champion and being No. 1,'' Capriati said. ``I don't know what's better. The first or to come back from match point and win this.''

Capriati was the first top-seeded woman to win a Grand Slam title since Hingis won her third consecutive Australian title in 1999. The Swiss has lost in the last three Australian Open finals.

``(Hingis) was pretty close to getting the revenge on me, same two sets, same scores,'' Capriati said. ``I don't know how I pulled it out. On those match points I was really aggressive.

``I just had to really go for it and it paid off.''

Capriati said she'd once lost after holding nine match points, so she knew a comeback wasn't impossible.

Both players struggled in the 95-degree heat, sitting in chairs in the shadows at both ends between points, taking refuge in the player's tunnel during bathroom breaks and saturating themselves with water and ice.

``This is the most unique victory, given everything that was going on out there,'' Capriati said. ``This will definitely stand out for sure.''

Capriati lost her cool in the second game of the second set and screamed at the chair umpire, demanding that a line judge be replaced after three bad calls.

``I really don't know what I was saying — I was really frustrated at that point,'' Capriati said of her uncharacteristic outburst. But it gave her some spark.

``Even though I was coming from behind, I always thought I could come back. I never thought about being defeated out there,'' she said.

Hingis said she should never have let it go to a third.

``At a set and 4-0 up, you shouldn't give it away,'' the 21-year-old Swiss said. ``Today, Jennifer was just steady until the last point. That was the difference.''

Hingis said she was exhausted and didn't want to come back after a 10-minute break following the second set.

She got an early break in the third but was foot-faulted three times in the fifth, including a double fault at break point to give Capriati the decisive lead.

``I just couldn't move any more ... my head was all over the place,'' she said. ``But after I lost the second set, she had the momentum. I really didn't believe in it anyway, even if I was up 2-1. I knew I wouldn't make it.''

Of the foot faults, she said: ``I was so tired I couldn't jump off my right leg any more.''

Capriati had 34 errors in the first two sets but just five in the third set.

She came back from 1-5 to 4-5 in the first set, but then lost her serve.

In the second, she slipped to 0-4 before saving three match points — at 3-5 and 5-6 — to force a tiebreaker.

Capriati survived another match point at 6-7 in the tiebreaker and evened it at one set apiece when Hingis skewed a backhand wide.

After closing the 2-hour, 10-minute decider with a running crosscourt forehand, she dropped her racket, ran over to her father, Stefano, in the stands, blew kisses to the crowd and shook her head in apparent disbelief.

``I couldn't believe finally that I won,'' she said.

Hingis, disconsolate, slumped into a courtside chair with a towel over her face after the match.

``Jennifer was just too good for me,'' she said. ``I don't know whether to be happy or cry about it.''

Capriati, who earned $520,000 for the title, made it to the French Open semifinals in 1990 at age 14 and won the Olympic gold medal at Barcelona two years later. But at 17, she dropped off the tour for 2 1/2 years and her personal problems made headlines.

Her initial demise coincided with Hingis' rise to No. 1.

Hingis became the youngest women's Grand Slam event champion when she won the 1997 Australian Open at age 16. She also won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year and reached the final of the French. But her only other titles came in 1998 and '99 at Melbourne Park.

Despite that, she held the No. 1 ranking for a total of 209 weeks, including a 73-week continuous stretch that ended last October when she had ankle surgery.

In the men's doubles final, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Canadian Daniel Nestor took the title with a 7-6 (4), 6-3 win over French pair Michael Llodra and Fabrice Santoro.

Russia's Marat Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion, will play in the men's championship on his 22nd birthday Sunday, when he meets 16th-seeded Thomas Johansson of Sweden.

News and Notes

Rackets Unravel in Australian Open

Tommy Haas and Marat Safin might not have felt strain during their Australian Open semifinal Friday, but their rackets did.

Each broke a racket during Safin's five-set victory and received a code violation. A spectator wound up with Haas's broken racket after the player tossed it underarm into the stands.

``It was broken, so it is really (of) no use to play anymore,'' Haas said. ``But I made a fan happy, so that's OK.''

After he dropped serve during the second set, Safin smashed his record on the court so hard that the racket's head folded over.

———

KING'S APPRAISAL: Tennis great Billie Jean King paid tribute to Pat Rafter after he was selected Australian of the Year during a ceremony in Sydney on Friday.

King said Rafter, taking a break from tennis and a soon-to-be father, had contributed much to the game. Widely respected for his sportsmanship, the Australian won the U.S. Open twice and was runner-up at Wimbledon twice.

King praised Rafter for the speech he made in accepting the award from Governor General Peter Hollingworth. Rafter paid tribute to thousands of volunteers who helped fight recent brushfires in Australia.

``He gave a very sweet, very moving speech. It was very sincere,'' King said in Melbourne. ``He ended up so appropriately, in that he really thanked the firefighters.

``Pat left that for the end because he probably thought deep down they deserve it over him. That's just why he's such a class act, he just gets it. My dad was a firefighter and he just touched me with what he said.''

Featured Matches

Rod Laver Arena (starting at 7 p.m. ET Saturday)
Gaston Etlis and Paola Suarez, Argentina, vs. Kevin Ullyett, Zimbabwe, and Daniela Hantuchova, Slovakia.

Marat Safin (9), Russia, vs. Thomas Johansson (16), Sweden.

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