| | Associated Press
WIMBLEDON, England -- Don Johnson and Kimberly Po of the
United States beat teenagers Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters 6-4,
7-6 (3) on Sunday to win Wimbledon's mixed doubles title.
The other doubles event set for Sunday -- women's doubles -- was
put off until Monday because of rain. Venus and Serena Williams
will face Julie Halard-Decugis and Ai Sugiyama.
The sisters will be after their third Grand Slam doubles title,
with previous victories last year in the U.S. Open and French.
Serena also won the 1998 Wimbledon and U.S. Open mixed doubles
titles teaming with Max Mirnyi. Venus won the Australian and French
Open in the same year playing with Justin Gimelstob.
In mixed doubles, the experienced U.S. team recovered from a
poor start to claim their first Grand Slam title. They had been
runners-up at the 1999 U.S. Open on Johnson's 31st birthday, and
also reached the quarterfinals of both the Australian and French
Open this year.
"It's very exciting to finally win one," Po said. "The thing
we like is that we played happy. We didn't do that at the U.S. Open
and that was very disappointing to lose that final in front of our
families."
Johnson said they were lucky to get past the first round.
"We eventually won that 9-7 in the third, and Kim lifted me up
and kept me in that match," he said. "She's very good like that,
a great partner."
Hewitt has been labeled a future star by Pete Sampras after the
19-year-old Australian beat him in the Queen's grass-court
tournament three weeks ago.
Clijsters, his 17-year-old Belgian girlfriend, proved her
potential when she led eventual champion Serena Williams 5-3 in the
final set at the 1999 U.S. Open.
Johnson dropped his serve in the second game but the Americans
immediately fought back and broke Clijsters in the next. Johnson
and Clijsters struggled on their serve, with Johnson saving two
break points in the sixth game before Clijsters was broken in the
seventh.
Po then found herself in trouble at 4-3 but saved a break point
and Johnson eventually served out the set to love.
There was nothing to separate the two teams in the second set,
with each player holding serve comfortably until Clijsters was
broken in the 11th game.
Hewitt, who had taken a fall and scrapped his left knee during
that game, then called for the trainer. While he was treated, the
relaxed Americans joked and posed arm-in-arm for a spectator taking
a photo.
The stoppage, though, broke Po's rhythm and she failed to serve
out for the match. But in the tiebreak, it was she who hit a winner
off a Clijsters serve to gain a 3-1 lead, and a double-fault by
Hewitt then gave the Americans a 6-3 lead. | |
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