INDIAN WELLS, Calif., March 16 (UPI) -- Top seeds Lleyton Hewitt and Kim Clijsters pulled off a sweetheart sweep Sunday at the Pacific Life Open.
Top-ranked Hewitt thrashed weary Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, 6-1, 6-1, in one hour to become the first back-to-back champion at Indian Wells since Michael Chang in 1996-97.
Clijsters, Hewitt's long-time girlfriend, took advantage of poor serving by Lindsay Davenport to defeat the fourth-seeded American, 6-4, 7-5, in the women's final.
"It's obviously fantastic for the both of us to come here, No. 1 seeds, everyone wants to knock you off," said Hewitt of the twin wins. "But we've both been able to handle the pressure and situation very well this week."
After dropping the finals of her previous two tournaments, Clijsters was determined to get back into the winner's circle. She outslugged an error-prone Davenport in 81 minutes to claim the title along with the $332,000 winner's check.
"I definitely wanted this one," Clijsters said. "I don't think it has set in yet but it's a pretty good feeling."
Davenport was seeking an unprecedented third title at Indian Wells but committed 39 unforced errors, including 10 double faults, to lose to Clijsters for the fourth time in their last five meetings.
"I just felt my serve wasn't as effective as it could have been," Davenport said. "Even if it went in, it wasn't really winning me any free points. This is something I've struggled with a little bit more this year than in the past years."
Though Davenport had a day to rest after beating second seed Jennifer Capriati in the semifinals on Friday night, she couldn't find much rhythm on the purple-hued center court due to the attacking style of her opponent, who blasted 37 winners -- 17 more than the loser.
"There's no question she's the reason why I didn't play great," said Davenport, who pocketed $163,000. "She's definitely been the most improved player for a number of months now. She's playing a lot smarter and a lot more confident than before where maybe she would miss some balls or concentration.
"Once you break through and start winning titles it gives you more confidence to keep doing that. Now she really seems to be focused on the entire match."
Though Davenport credited Clijsters with solid play, she also found fault with the schedule made to accommodate television.
When Saturday's second semifinal was postponed due to rain, the match was scheduled for 9 a.m. PST, followed by the women's and men's finals.
"It's one of our biggest tournaments," Davenport said. "It's just ridiculous. I just don't think it was appropriate to schedule either final at that time. I'm not on that side of the game, but you'd think they would have worked out a better solution than that."
Hewitt, who conceded just three games in last year's final against Britain's Tim Henman, administered the worst beating in the 28-year-old history of the tournament on Sunday.
The reigning Wimbledon champion won his second title of the year in as many tournaments and the 19th of his career. He raised his season record on the ATP circuit to 15-1.
Kuerten completed a 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 victory over No. 15 Rainer Schuettler in the first match of the day. With the win, he became the first man not from the United States to reach the final of all four North American Tennis Masters Series events.
"It's always an interesting situation when you have someone coming off playing this morning and being on Cloud Nine, making a Masters Series final, and then have to turn around in an hour and a half and have to go out and play the final," Hewitt said. "But it works both ways."
Hewitt took advantage of the situation.
"I was very aware Guga is capable of coming out and playing another good match," he said. "I wanted to get off to an extremely good start. Today, to me, he was pushing the panic button a lot to try and go for winners where he didn't want to be in a lot of long rallies."
Kuerten admitted the task was too tough for him.
"It was very unusual, very tough as well," he said. "The best thing for me right now is to forget this final."
