MAHUT

DEFEATS

HEWITT

IN FINAL OF

NEWPORT

NEWPORT, R.I. — Nicolas Mahut certainly knows a little something about being on court for a long time. Judging by his smile, it was a lot better feeling this time.

The 31-year old Frenchman captured the title at the Hall of Fame Tennis Championships on Sunday, beating Lleyton Hewitt of Australia 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.

Mahut, a 2007 Newport finalist and a wild-card entrant this week, won his second career ATP title. The other came at ‘s-Hertogenbosch last month.

Mahut lost the longest match in tennis history three years ago, dropping the fifth set to John Isner 70-68 at Wimbledon in a match that lasted 11 hours, 5 minutes. A display with items used in that match is located a few hundred yards away in the International Tennis Hall of Fame.