|
 |   |
|
EVENTS Fantasy Central Inside Game Multimedia Central Statitudes Your Turn Message Boards Email Newsletters Golf Guide Cities Work in Sports
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE |  |
Davenport rules Heavy hitter could take No. 1 ranking at Ericsson Open
Posted: Wednesday March 22, 2000 10:27 AM
LONDON (Reuters) -- "I just hate playing you." Lindsay Davenport may not be ranked No. 1 but that muttered comment by Martina Hingis after the Australian Open final underlines where the power now lies in women's tennis. Davenport is the undisputed queen of the court after shattering Hingis' already tottering confidence in the Indian Wells final at the weekend, sweeping the last 10 games for her eighth win in 10 matches against the Swiss teenager. Women's tennis now revolves around power, pure and simple, and Hingis is finding it tough to compete against taller, heavier, harder-hitting competitors such as Davenport and the Williams sisters. But what Davenport has, which Serena and Venus do not, is consistency. "With Lindsay there is just no compromise," Hingis said in Melbourne. "She kills you right away, no mistakes." All four of the protagonists in the women's game would have appeared at a tournament for the first time this year in Miami, where the Ericsson Open starts Thursday. But defending champion Venus Williams, who has not played this year because of tendinitis in her wrists, pulled out on Wednesday. Her sister Serena has also had a low-key start to the year, losing to Mary Pierce in the quarterfinals at Indian Wells after winning the Hanover title in February. Hingis was swept aside by Serena in the U.S. Open final last year and suffered similar treatment at the hands of Davenport in the Australian Open final, despite the American contracting the wobbles at 6-1 5-1 before eventually winning 6-1 7-5. Davenport, who won Wimbledon last year and the U.S. Open in 1998, reserves her best for Hingis and this is beginning to get under the skin of the world number one, without a Grand Slam title since the 1999 Australian Open. Davenport's confidence growsHingis's reading of the game and superb timing is still there but her confidence, usually her strongest weapon, is on the ebb and she admitted in Indian Wells she now hopes Davenport will be beaten by someone else before they meet in a final. "It's a little depressing losing to her all the time," Hingis said. "You have to make four points in a game, then wait for something to happen like an angel coming down." By contrast Davenport -- on a 16-match winning streak -- just does not believe anyone can beat her at the moment and she relishes "dining out" on Hingis on finals day. Before she won her second Grand Slam at Wimbledon, Davenport gave the impression she was not sure she deserved to be ranked among the very best. Now she stands tall and invites the others to try to knock her down. "I definitely think I've been the number one player since October or November, maybe even the summer," she said last week. "It's always exciting to play Martina. I always cheer for her to get to the finals after I'm there." While the women's game is developing a rivalry on the lines of Navratilova-Evert and Graf-Seles, the big draws in the men's game -- Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi -- have both hit an injury-induced drop in form. Is Agassi's run at an end?Agassi's superb run started with victory at the 1999 French Open and carried on through a Wimbledon final, another win at the U.S. Open and the Australian Open title in January. But the post-Melbourne Davis Cup trip to Zimbabwe, where he suffered dehydration, seems to have stretched the Agassi elastic too far and the 29-year-old American has been off the pace ever since, losing in the first round at Indian Wells in what he called a pitiful performance. Sampras, whose 1999 was also badly affected by injury, has contested only two ATP tournaments this year, outside the Australian Open where he lost to Agassi in a five-set thriller. The men's game needs a fully fit Sampras and Agassi meeting in the latter stages of the top tournaments to maintain the game's profile at the level reached last year when the two met five times, including in the Wimbledon final. Agassi has always been a mood player, whose eye and timing just needs to be a scintilla off for the ball to end up in the stands rather than down the line. Whether his decline since the Davis Cup marks the end of a nine-month dream run, or is just a blip before he takes the French Open by storm again, should become clearer in Miami where Agassi is top seed and has won the title three times. It is also unwise to write off Sampras but there have been clear signs over the past 12 months that the 28-year-old American is now happy to keep his powder dry for the big tournaments as he attempts to beat Roy Emerson's record of 12 Grand Slams. As in the women's draw, the men are lacking their defending champion in Miami as Richard Krajicek is sidelined by a knee injury.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
| ||||||||||||||||||||
