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 A champion's champion Davenport's dream summer ends with coveted U.S. Open crown
Posted: Sunday September 13, 1998 02:25 PM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lindsay Davenport had been in tennis' waiting room a long time. Touted as one of America's finest young players after winning the U.S. Open junior championship in 1992, she was unable to push past the promise of her potential. Except for a couple of doubles championships, Davenport carried the label of a Grand Slam also-ran. Then came a dream summer that ended with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over defending champion Martina Hingis for the U.S. Open crown, the title she's always craved. "The sight at the end of the tunnel of winning the Grand Slam was what kept me going," she said. Davenport's Olympic gold medal in 1996 was largely ignored, but it was a signal she was getting ready to move into tennis' upper echelon. Last September, she reached the U.S. Open semifinals for the first time and then got to semis at the Australian and French Opens and the quarters at Wimbledon. "At the French, everybody criticized me for playing a bad match in the semis," she said, recalling a straight-sets loss to eventual champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. "I looked at it as such a positive. I did so well at the French. I thought I was hitting the ball well. "Again at Wimbledon, I thought I was doing well. Once Wimbledon ended, I couldn't wait for the hardcourt season to begin." Davenport won three straight matches on hardcourts in California and had a 14-match winning streak in the weeks before the Open. She also embarked on a fitness program that trimmed 25 pounds and left her quicker than ever. Even a semifinal loss to Steffi Graf in an Open tuneup couldn't diminish her enthusiasm. She marched through the Open like a player on a mission, and it paid off. "The two weeks have been great," she said. "I didn't lose a set. I played great tennis. I don't think I ever really got down on myself, which has been a big thing. I was able to really, in my eyes, act like a champion and really win the title." Hingis did not make it easy. With Davenport up a set and serving for a 5-2 lead in the second, the world's No. 1 player rallied. "She stopped making her errors," Davenport said. "She was running me around an awful lot then." In the past, that has been the recipe for beating Davenport, and Hingis knew it. There was also some buzz around the tour that Davenport got down on herself in tough spots. Not this time. Even after Hingis moved in front 5-4, Davenport would not be denied. "Definitely some nerves crept in," she said. "I got down 4-5 but I was able to break at love, get my footing back in the match and just play well. ... I don't think I let anything bother me. I was very focused. I was very calm." Davenport became the Open's first American-born women's champion since Chris Evert in 1982. The significance was not lost on 22-year-old from Newport Beach, California. "No one's done it in a long time," she said. "I'm proud to be the first one."
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