Lleyton Hewitt and Serena Williams were named today as the International Tennis Federation's world champions for 2002.

Hewitt won the award for the second year in a row, while Williams was honoured for the first time.

Hewitt, 21, won Wimbledon for the first time and secured the season-ending No.1 ranking for the second straight year by defending his Masters Cup title in Shanghai last month.

Serena Williams, 21, won three out of four Grand Slams, beating older sister Venus in each final. She took over the No.1 ranking for the first time at Wimbledon and has kept it ever since.

If Serena Williams wins the Australian Open next month, she'll become the fifth female player to hold all four Grand Slam titles at the same time.

The men's doubles world champions are Mark Knowles of the Bahamas and Canada's Daniel Nestor. They won six titles, including the Australian Open.

The women's doubles award went to Argentina's Paola Suarez and Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual. They collected seven titles, including the French Open and US Open.

In the wheelchair category, the winners were David Hall of Australia and Esther Vergeer of the Netherlands.

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