Davenport upends Serena at JPMorgan
Associated Press
CARSON, Calif. (AP) - Another week, another tournament title over a Williams sister for Lindsay Davenport.
Davenport defeated top-seeded Serena Williams 6-1, 6-3 in just over an hour Sunday to win the JPMorgan Chase Open, her fourth career title in eight finals appearances of her hometown tournament.
``I've practised here since I was five or six,'' Davenport said. ``I feel really great being able to stay home.''
A week ago, Davenport beat Venus Williams in a riveting three-set match to win the Bank of the West title at Stanford.
The victories ended Davenport's four-year losing streak to both sisters.
``The last 10 months I've been building a little bit stronger base physically,'' said Davenport, whose foot injury hampered her most of last year before she had off-season surgery. ``I was able to withstand the power and be able to run down some balls. Pulling through a really close match last week has given me a lot of confidence.''
In 1998, Davenport won at Stanford, Los Angeles and Carlsbad in consecutive weeks before winning her only U.S. Open title. She finished the year ranked No. 1.
``'98 was a fantastic run,'' she said. ``I feel I'm in the same position I was in then.''
Davenport beat Serena for the first time since the 2000 U.S. Open quarter-finals. She had lost five matches in a row, including the 2001 and 2002 U.S. Opens.
``It was just an awful, horrendous, terrible, miserable, horrible day,'' Williams said.
Davenport was on her game from the start of the match at Home Depot Center. She broke Williams in the third game on a backhand winner to go up 2-1. She held for 3-1 on a smash off Williams' short ball. Then Davenport broke again when Williams hit a forehand wide for a 4-1 lead.
``She gave me a lot of errors, but I was really solid and able to take control,'' Davenport said.
Davenport served a love game to go up 5-1. She closed out the set with another service break on Williams' forehand error - one of her 29 in the match.
``I committed suicide out there,'' said Williams, who lost the Wimbledon final to 17-year-old Maria Sharapova. ``My second suicide attempt of the year.''
Davenport fought off break points on her final three service games of the match. She faced three break points in the last game. She hit a backhand winner off Williams' short service return to save the second one. Then Williams netted a forehand chasing down a ball in the corner and did the splits to waste the third one.
Williams sprayed a backhand service return long to set up match point, and she netted a backhand on match point.
``I had my opportunities in the second set and I didn't take them,'' she said. ``I don't think she served that well, but I just didn't take them.''
Williams connected on 71 per cent of her first serves, but managed just three aces. She had only nine winners. Davenport had just one unforced error in the first set, which she called ``a miracle.'' She had 12 total errors.
Williams has gone six tournaments without winning a title, her longest drought since the end of 1998 and beginning of 1999. Her only title this year was at Miami in March, her first tournament coming off an eight-month layoff caused by left knee surgery.
``I need to get serious and really concentrate,'' she said. ``Hopefully, I can learn from the past.''
The third-seeded Davenport led Venus Williams 7-5, 2-0 in Saturday's semifinals when Venus withdrew because of a right wrist sprain. Venus wore a brace on her wrist Sunday when she watched her sister lose.
Davenport was projected to be fourth and Serena Williams 10th in Monday's WTA Tour rankings.
Davenport, who grew up in Palos Verdes and lives in Laguna Beach, and Williams, a Compton native, helped draw 8,161 fans to the final - the largest crowd of the week in the tournament's second year in Carson.
Davenport earned $93,000 US. She leads the U.S. Open Series Bonus Challenge with 100 points. Points are awarded at 10 tournaments leading up to the year's final Grand Slam tournament, with the top three players receiving bonus money.
Venus is second with 57 points and Serena third with 35.