Davenport captures title
About the article
This is a digitised version of an article from The Cayman Compass's print archive. Occasionally, the digitisation process introduces transcription errors, or other problems.
See the article in its original context from January 2000.
Brought to you by
In winning 6-1, 7-5 Saturday, Davenport added the Australian title to the Wimbledon championship she won last year and U.S. Open title she won in 1998.
Davenport stood on the brink of one of the most lopsided triumphs in Grand Slam history as she served for the match at 6-1, 5-1, 30-15, but Hingis refused to yield on a court she considered her backyard.
Hingis caught up to an overhead by Davenport as she broke to begin a four-game surge to tie the set at 5-5. But the magic ran out for the 19-year-old Swiss when Davenport swept through the next two games, breaking Hingis at love in the final game.
At 23, Davenport needs only to win the French Open to complete a rare career Grand Slam.
She won the Australian without dropping a set, though the last set very nearly slipped away. She showed what a fighter she is," Davenport said in accepting the trophy and 717,000 Australian dollar (U.S. dlrs 460,600) winner's check.
``I was watching the clock. I just tried to keep it over an hour," Hingis said. ``At least I made that." Just barely: one hour, five minutes.
Davenport seemed ready to end the match in a mere 45 minutes after thoroughly thrashing Hingis from baseline to net. But two points away from victory at 5-1, Davenport netted a backhand, got back to deuce with an ace, lost the next point on an overhead by Hingis, then netted a backhand on a strong return by Hingis.
Hingis then held easily to 5-3, broke Davenport once more, and put the match even when Davenport made four errors, ending the game with a backhand wide. Suddenly, Hingis looked confident and Davenport troubled.
But Davenport, who had won nine of their previous 16 matches, didn't let this one get away. Davenport produced two spectacular shots - a bruising backhand winner down the line and a crisp volley winner on the next point to hold for a 6-5 lead.
Hingis then buckled, opening with a doublefault, hitting a backhand long, missing wide on an easy shot, and whacking a backhand long on a deep return by Davenport.
Davenport skipped toward the net, her arms in the air.
Davenport will remain No. 2 behind Hingis in the next rankings, but could usurp the top spot well before the French Open in May.
The victory was Davenport's sixth in the past seven matches against Hingis. She also beat Hingis to win the U.S. Open in 1998.
