defeated David Nalbandian in the final, 6–1, 6–3, 6–2 to win the Gentlemen's Singles tennis title at the 2002 Wimbledon Championships. It was Hewitt's second Grand Slam title, after winning the 2001 US Open. Hewitt was also the first Australian to win the title since Pat Cash in 1987. Goran Ivanišević was the defending champion, but withdrew due to a shoulder surgery and he would not return until 2004. Following his withdrawal, Hewitt was approached to play the opening match on Centre Court but refused, fearing the grass "would be too pure, too swift, a mite too glassy". When he next played at Wimbledon, as defending champion, he lost in the first round. The 2002 Championships made history due to the unprecedentedly poor results of the top players. With the exception of Lleyton Hewitt and world no. 4 Tim Henman, the top 17 seeds were knocked out before the fourth round. This granted relatively unknown players an unusually high chance of success, especially as Hewitt and Henman were in the same half of the draw and played each other in the semi-finals. In one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history, seven-time Champion Pete Sampras was eliminated by George Bastl of Switzerland in the second round. It would be Sampras' final appearance ever at Wimbledon. The 1992 championAndre Agassisuffered a second-round defeat to unseeded Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand, while future eight-time champion Roger Federer was defeated in the first round by Croatian qualifier Mario Ančić, his last defeat at Wimbledon before his record-tying five straight Wimbledon-titles between 2003-07. This was the last Grand Slam tournament for 1997 Wimbledon Finalist and former World No. 4 Cédric Pioline, losing in the 1st Round against 2nd seeded Marat Safin, and the last appearance for 1996 Wimbledon ChampionRichard Krajicek, reaching the quarterfinals before losing to Xavier Malisse of Belgium.
Seeds
Lleyton Hewitt Marat Safin ' Andre Agassi ' Tim Henman ' Yevgeny Kafelnikov ' Pete Sampras ' Roger Federer ' Thomas Johansson ' Juan Carlos Ferrero' Guillermo Cañas ' Andy Roddick ' Jiří Novák ' Younes El Aynaoui' Thomas Enqvist ' Andrei Pavel ' Nicolas Escudé ' Rainer Schüttler ' Sjeng Schalken ' Juan Ignacio Chela ' Tommy Robredo ' Max Mirnyi ' Nicolás Lapentti ' Greg Rusedski ' Gastón Gaudio ' Fabrice Santoro ' Todd Martin ' Xavier Malisse ' David Nalbandian' James Blake ' Ivan Ljubičić ' Stefan Koubek ' Jarkko Nieminen The original #5 seedTommy Haas withdrew due to personal reasons before the tournament draw was made. All original seeds from 6-32 moved up one place, and a new #32 seed was added.
