Tennis story by Gareth Bowman, Mon, 20 Feb 2006 14:24:00 GMT


SAN JOSE - Britain's Andy Murray clinched his maiden ATP Tour title when he overcame top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 2-6 6-1 7-6 (7-3). The 18-year-old Briton capped a fine run in San Jose where he also overcame No 2 seed Andy Roddick 7-5 7-5 in the semifinals.

Hewitt has gone for almost 13 months without a Tour title even though he has two US Opens and a Wimbledon title to his credit. Hewitt acknowledged that he put a lot of pressure on his serve and was able to put only 44 percent of the first serves into the court. "I put myself under a lot of pressure. I just wasn't getting those cheap points off my serve," Hewitt said.

"I guess there haven't been too many 18-year-olds in the last five years or so with that kind of skill. He hits the ball extremely well; he mixes it up extremely well. He can dictate when he wants to, but he is also very good on the defense. Murray's going to continue to get better and better in the next few years and people will see a lot more of him."

But Murray was not carried away with the win, "I thought I played really well and got my tactics right, but didn't execute them well in the first set," he said. "To win 7-6 in the third set against Lleyton is a dream come true." With the Murray, who was ranked 514th in the world just over a year ago, moves into the top 50 for the first time.

"Anybody who wins his first ATP tournament and beats guys as good as Roddick and Hewitt is going to have much more confidence," Murray said. "I'm really looking forward to the next few weeks. I know now I have a good chance of winning against (the elite players)."

Britain's number 1 player Tim Henman has heaped praise on Murray after his win over Lleyton Hewitt, "He's got a great serve, a great motion, a big forehand, good two-handed backhand, he understands the game well and he's comfortable coming to the net. So the technical aspects are all in place," Henman told The Independent. He added that if Murray managed to stay healthy, he had a great future ahead of him.

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