American sweep
Davenport, Martin win Adidas International titles
Posted: Saturday January 16, 1999 01:33 AM
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Davenport: "It's been a really exciting time for me and I could never have imagined being No.1" AP |
SYDNEY, Australia (AP) -- Lindsay Davenport beat Martina Hingis for the first time since robbing the Swiss star of the No.1 ranking, winning the Sydney Adidas International final 6-4, 6-3 Saturday.
In the men's final, American Todd Martin, the No.8 seed, set his sights on a Grand Slam breakthrough after beating top seed and No.3-ranked Alex Corretja in straight sets.
Hingis had won the only two matches between the world's best women since the American took the top spot on Oct.12 last year. But Davenport repeated her straight sets win in the U.S. Open final in September and leads 4-3 in their seven final meetings in the past 14 months.
"I love playing Martina, it's always an enjoyable match and hopefully we'll be playing again two weeks from today," Davenport said of the Australian Open starting Monday.
Hingis, looking below her usual fitness levels, struggled in oppressive heat and was in trouble from the start.
She lost the first game of the match with a double fault and although she broke straight back, her serve was lacking power and accuracy.
Davenport went out to a 5-1 lead in the first before Hingis narrowed the margin with one break.
Davenport, who lost to Hingis in the final of the season-ending Chase Championships and again in last week's Hopman Cup teams tournament, got a decisive break in the fifth game and then got another break to close out the match.
The Hopman Cup did not count towards the 7-7 career record between the two after Saturday's final.
Martin: "I'm thrilled with the way things have gone this week" AP |
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"It's been a really exciting time for me and I could never have imagined being No.1," said Davenport. "I'm sometimes overwhelmed by it all."
Martin, 28, won 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) for only his eighth title in a pro career stretching back to 1990. The No.16-ranked Martin's best Grand Slam performance was losing the 1994 Australian Open final to Pete Sampras, who will miss this year's tournament because of fatigue.
Martin, who won this tournament in 1996, has reached the semifinal stage just four times in 26 Grand Slam appearances but gives himself a chance of featuring prominently in an open field in Melbourne.
"I'm thrilled with the way things have gone this week," Martin said. "I feel this is the best that I've hit the ball in a long time."
Martin, the ATP Players Council president, had no time to celebrate the victory, hopping a plane to Melbourne for a meeting which will focus on Petr Korda's positive drugs test.
He scurried through the opening set by breaking Corretja in the third game and continued to worry last year's French Open runner-up. The Spaniard failed to find a groove on serve until the second set and it went to serve until the tiebreaker.
Martin got a break on the fourth point but gave it back with a double fault and looked to be wilting in the hot conditions.
"I had to be as aggressive as I could and that meant a lot of work for me," Martin said.
But he wrapped up the title and the US$46,000 first prize by converting his first match point, Corretja getting pinned back on the baseline and sending a forehand long. Corretja's prize money share was US$27,000.
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