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Race for the Chase Season-ending tourney boasts best of the WTA
Posted: Saturday November 13, 1999 05:26 PM
NEW YORK (Reuters) -- The changing of the guard in women's tennis becomes official next week with a retirement party for Steffi Graf at the season-ending Chase Championships while the next generation of tennis stars battle for the crown she won five times. New York tennis fans get a chance to bid farewell to the German superstar on Tuesday night after being denied that opportunity when Graf retired prior to the U.S. Open. A less elaborate send-off is planned for 1997 champion Jana Novotna, who also decided to call it quits this year. The absence of Graf and Novotna and three-time winner Monica Seles, who is sidelined by injury, leaves 19-year-old defending champion Martina Hingis as the lone player in the field of 16 to have won the prestigious year-end title. While losing Graf, Seles and Novotna, the 1999 Chase Championships receives an exciting infusion of new blood as the title-hungry Williams sisters make the most eagerly anticipated debuts in the season finale since Jennifer Capriati's 1990 appearance. Venus Williams, 19, qualified in 1998 but withdrew with an injury, delaying her first Madison Square Garden experience. "It just seems like I should've been there two years ago. For some reason or other I've never been there," she said. Eighteen-year-old Serena Williams storms into the season finale to conclude a spectacular breakout year in which she beat her celebrated sibling to the Grand Slam punch by capturing the U.S. Open crown among her five 1999 titles -- the first of her fledgling career. Venus was devastated upon losing her U.S. Open semifinal to Hingis, failing to fulfill her end of her father's promise of an all-Williams final. But she picked up her sixth title of the year with a win over the Swiss teen on Hingis' home turf in Zurich last month and beat her again at the Grand Slam Cup. Joining Hingis and the Williams sisters as serious title threats are relative old timers Lindsay Davenport, last year's runner-up, and 1997 losing finalist Mary Pierce. Davenport, the 23-year-old Wimbledon champion, is making her sixth consecutive appearance, while Pierce, 24, is playing for the sixth time in seven years. Win or lose, Hingis will finish the year with the world number one ranking. "One thing's for sure, I'm going to stay number one no matter what happens. That's a little bit of pressure off me," said Hingis, who seems to put more stock in computer rankings than any other tennis player, male of female. "I wanted to finish the year number one. But if possible, I'd like to defend this tournament, since I won last year." Winner of a WTA Tour-best seven titles this year, including the Australian Open, Hingis expressed surprise this week at how far ahead of her rivals she was in rankings points. "There were four different Grand Slam champions, but I was the most consistent. I am kind of proud about that," she said. In addition to Serena Williams, the 16-player field features two other first-time qualifiers -- Austrian Barbara Schett, who made the jump into the world's top 10 in 1999, and Amelie Mauresmo, the surprise Australian Open finalist. The proceedings will have a decidedly French flavor this year with five of eight first-round matches featuring a French player. Besides Pierce and Mauresmo, Nathalie Tauziat, Julie Halard-Decugis and Sandrine Testud have been invited to the Garden party.
One of the truly unique elements of the WTA Tour's season-ending Championships will be missing, however, after officials decided to replace the only best-of-five-sets final in women's tennis with the usual best-of-three format.
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