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A win away Davenport beats Dementieva in straight sets
NEW YORK (AP) -- Lindsay Davenport survived a scare from long-shot Elena Dementieva on Friday and advanced to the finals of the U.S. Open with a 6-2, 7-6 (5) victory over the Russian teen-ager. Davenport, the 1998 champion who is seeded second, goes for her second Open title Saturday against the winner of Friday's other semifinal between No. 1 Martina Hingis and No. 3 Venus Williams. Dementieva had beaten two seeded players, No. 7 Conchita Martinez and No. 10 Anke Huber, on the way to the semifinals. The 18-year-old then forced Davenport to scramble into a tiebreaker. It looked as if Davenport would make fast work of Dementieva. She breezed through the first set, winning the first four games and rarely giving up even a point against her clearly nervous rival. Drilling long, deep shots just the way she said she would, and painting the lines with her shots, Davenport often got close calls and left her opponent helpless to do anything about it. Dementieva settled down but trailed 2-6, 2-5 when she began a brave rally. She saved four match points and twice broke Davenport when she was serving for the match. Davenport lost four straight games and fell behind 5-6 before winning a crucial game to force the tiebreak and finally prevailed on match point, with the ball just catching the back baseline. Next for Davenport is the Martina Hingis- Venus Williams winner.
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