Hewitt to battle Italian and fatigue
( 2001-06-18 09:43 ) (7 )

Australia's Lleyton Hewitt celebrates after defeating Britain's Tim Henman in the final of the Stella Artois tennis Tournament at Queens June 17, 2001. Hewitt, who retained the title, won the match 7-6 7-6.

Top seeded Lleyton Hewitt will battle fatigue and Italian Davide Sanguinetti as the Queen's champion moves his Wimbledon preparations from England to the Netherlands on Monday.

Hewitt, who retained his Stella Artois ATP title with a 7-6 7-6 win over Briton Tim Henman on Sunday, was left no time to savour his triumph as the 20-year-old Australian travels to Rosmalen for the Heineken Trophy and a first round clash with Sanguinetti.

"I'll have a pretty quiet night, a few drinks with the family," said Hewitt, who stumbled out of Wimbledon last year with an opening round loss to American Jan-Michael Gambill.

"I am looking forward to hopefully getting a few more good results under my belt there before Wimbledon."

Joining Hewitt in this quiet southern Dutch town will be compatriot and second seed Patrick Rafter, who begins his quest for a fourth consecutive Heineken crown, against hometown favourite Peter Wessels.

Belgians Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin will occupy the two top seeds in the women's tournament which will be played at the same time alongside the men.

With French Open champion Jennifer Capriati withdrawing due to fatigue, Roland Garros runnerup Clijsters assumes the role of top seed ahead of Henin.

Both Clijsters and Henin, who clashed in the French Open semifinals, will ease into the tournament with first round byes.

But their will be no such luxury for Dutch wildcard Miriam Oremans, who will continue her tennis marathon with an opening round clash against Australian Nicole Pratt after she finally completes the rain interrupted Edgbaston Open on Monday.

Oremans began Sunday with a quarter-final win over American Kristina Brandi and semifinal victory over Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova setting up a final clash with Frenchwoman Nathalie Tauziat in the final.

SHORT TRIP

It will also be a weary Hewitt who makes the short trip to the Netherlands after having pulled double duty on Sunday, battling to a three-set semifinal win over the seven-time Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras in the morning then a tough two set victory over Henman in the afternoon.

Certainly the Australian cannot afford to relax against Sanguinetti.

While Sanguinetti has exited Wimbledon in the opening round the last two years, in 1998 he proved he could pose a threat on grass becoming the first Italian to reach the quarter-finals at the All-England Club.

Having tuned up for Wimbledon the last three years with grass court titles in the Netherlands, Rafter faces a potentially tricky first round test in Wessels, a serve and volley specialist whose only career title came on grass last year at Newport.

But Rafter has also got his grass court campaign off to a promising start having reached the semifinals in Halle in Germany before falling to Frenchman Fabrice Santoro.

With a big serve and punishing groundstrokes, Clijsters's power game appears ideally suited to grass and her record would bear that out having reached the fourth round in her first trip to Wimbledon in 1999 before falling to finalist Steffi Graf.

Henin and third seed Elena Dementieva of Russia are far less comfortable on the grass, both players still seeking their first Wimbledon win.

In contrast, fourth seed Yugoslav Jelena Dokic, a semifinalist and quarter-finalist at Wimbledon the last two year, will be relishing the return to grass and can expect few problems from her first opponent Argentine claycourter Mariana Diaz Olivia.