Stuttgart Masters: Ferreira downs Hewitt

South African Wayne Ferreira beat Australian Lleyton Hewitt in the longest final of the year at the Stuttgart Masters. He beat Hewitt in a marathon final 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-2.

In the semi-finals, L Hewitt had beaten Russian Y Kafelnikov 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3 and W Ferreira (S Africa) defeated S Grosjean (France) 6-4, 6-2.

Wayne Ferreira later mentioned to the organisers: "Last week I felt ready to go on holiday. This week I'm ready to play for ever."

Ferreira won his first title since 1996, and he put this triumph over the 19 year old Aussie due to his age and experience. He even said that the older he gets, the better he gets.

It was a match that had its share of missed oppurtunities but it more than made up for those missed oppurtunities with some breath-taking groundstrokes.

Hewitt looked totally in command for the first two sets and for the majority of the third set where he held a 5-1 lead before Ferreira came back strongly to take the third set.

But Ferreira still was not in complete control and the Aussie missed many chances to close out the contest. Ferreira also became the first non-European winner of this title, which he won after a long gruelling match which brought out the best in both players.

Hewitt later mentioned that he had been struggling with a virus for the past month and that affected his match fitness.