The final four
Davenport, Hingis join Graf, Spirlea in Chase semifinals
Posted: Friday November 20, 1998 11:30 PM
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Hingis, who will finish the year at No. 2, is seeking her second trip to the finals in three tries. AP |
NEW YORK (AP) -- Martina Hingis blunted the power game of Mary Pierce 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 Friday night to gain a spot in the semifinals of the Chase Championships.
The second-seeded Hingis will next play Romania's Irina Spirlea, with the winner advancing to the unique best-of-5-sets final in this season-ending event, the only time during the year pro women play more than three sets.
In the other semifinal, the world's top-ranked player, Lindsay Davenport, has another date with the Corel WTA Tour's hottest player, Steffi Graf. The Madison Square Garden meeting comes six days after Graf beat Davenport in the final of a tournament in Philadelphia.
"She is obviously playing the best tennis right now, and you always want to kind of go up against the best, and she has definitely been doing that her last couple of tournaments," Davenport said of Graf. "Sometimes it is great to kind of get back out there against someone that you recently lost to and some of the stuff is still fresh in your mind."
Davenport advanced to the semifinals by easily defeating eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-0, 6-3 in Friday night's opener.
Graf advanced Thursday night with a dramatic 1-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over No. 5 Monica Seles in the best match of the tournament. It ran Graf's match winning streak to 12 as the 29-year-old German seeks her third title in three weeks.
"Last night's match was unbelievable tennis, I thought," Davenport said.
The Hingis-Pierce match was a replay of last year's quarterfinals, which Pierce won in three sets. This time, Hingis didn't let it get that far.
She traded heavy groundstrokes with her French opponent, somehow finding yet another angle, a winning one. She had more variety to her game, and showed it, mixing in drop shots and regularly going to the net to put away a winning volley.
Pierce called for a trainer in the first set and later iced the back of her neck and her groin at every changeover. But it didn't seem to bother her mobility, which is much improved over last year.
At one point, Pierce left the court for a few minutes. Hingis kept limber by playing against a ball boy, who used one of her rackets.
Hingis, who is assured of finishing the year ranked No. 2 behind Davenport, is seeking her second trip to the final in her three trips to the Garden. In her debut in 1996, she lost in five sets to Graf.
Davenport: "I don't think I had many errors. I was seeing the ball well."
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Davenport raced through the opening set of her match in 19 minutes. While Tauziat provided much stiffer opposition in the second set, there was no question as to who would win, only what the final score would be.
"The first set I played really great tennis," Davenport said. "I don't think I had many errors. I was seeing the ball well."
As Davenport won game after game, Tauziat captured the Madison Square Garden crowd, which is always pulling for the underdog. Very little worked for Tauziat, the oldest player in the select 16-person field. And when she did win a hard-earned point, the crowd responded warmly.
The loudest cheer came 30 minutes into the match when the Frenchwoman won her first game.
"She played good tonight," Tauziat said of Davenport. "But compared to the other time, I don't play really good tonight, so maybe that made the difference. But she didn't make a lot of mistakes today, that is for sure."
After hitting a good approach shot deep into a corner and heading to the net, only to see yet another Davenport winner go whizzing past, Tauziat at one point shook her head from side to side in exasperation and slapped her thigh. On another point, one where the ball tipped the top of the net during the rally, which she lost, she pointed to the net and hit her forehand while muttering to herself.
The final point of the night was a microcosm of the entire match.
Tauziat pounded what she thought was a winner deep into the corner. Somehow, Davenport got to the ball and lifted a defensive backhand lob into the lights. The ball bounced just inside the sideline halfway between the service and baselines.
Tauziat lined it up, prepared properly, then pounded the ball into the middle of the net.
It was the 14th meeting between the two, a series Davenport has dominated. However, in recent matches, Tauziat has created problems for the world's top-ranked player, beating the right-hander from Newport Beach, California, indoors at the Grand Slam Cup last month.
Prior to the match, Davenport had her right foot worked on after the two had warmed up. The blister was the last thing that bothered Davenport this night.
Sunday's title match will be a best-of-5 sets, the only time women play more than three sets. The winner will collect $500,000, with $250,000 going to the losing finalist.
The top eight doubles teams are also competing on the Garden's blue carpet. The doubles champions will split $200,000.
Copyright 2003 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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