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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 13, 2000)
September 13, 2000 Portland (Obeeruer Page B5 (Tip Jlovtlanò (Observer Metro/ Williams claims U.S. Open title ASSQt.IATEP.EMSi> A glittery tiara in her hair and menace in herstrokes, Venus Williams tightened the family grip on w om en’s tennis Saturday night, capturing the U.S. O pen title her sister w on a year ago. Tw o m onths after beating Lindsay D avenport at W im bledon for her first Grand Slam title, W illiam s confirmed her place as the best in the gam e, ifnot in the rankings, by beating D avenport again 6-4, 7-5 in the hardest-hitting w om en’s final in U.S. O pen history. N ever before had tw o w om en’s finalists w alloped shots so fiercely, so consistently, from both sides as W illiam s and D avenport in this rain- delayed, 1 -hour, 25-minute duel. They each needed to be fast to keep up with the other, and no one in the gam e is faster than the sinew y, long-legged Wilhams. “ I really have som e w h ee ls,” W illiam s said. “ I ’m really speedy these days. It helped m e out a lot.” W illiams gazed at the silver trophy, taking pleasure in seeing w here her nam e will be inscribed next to that o f h er sister, Serena. “ It feels real nice,” V enus said. W illiam s celebrated this victory le s s ta m e ly th a n sh e d id h e r W im bledon triumph, skipping lightly to the net, twirling a bit, shaking hands briefly with Davenport. W illiams then trotted over to the co m er to kiss her m other and hug her father and coach, Richard, w ho cam e dow n to the court and danced jubilantly beside her, w hile S erena told her, “G reat job, V enus." “V enus was playing great. She forced m e to play better and I couldn ’ t do it,” D avenport said. D avenport beat 18-year-old Serena in the quarterfinals, but m ade too m any errors to hold o f f V enus, w ho p o ck e te d $ 8 0 0 ,0 0 0 co m p ared to D avenport’s $425,000. T h o u g h c le a rly d o m in a n t in w o m en ’s tennis as she rides a 26- m atch w inning streak bookended by tw om ajortitles, W illiam s will remain No. 3 in the ranking behind No. 1 M artin H ingis and No. 2 D avenport. The lag in the rankings is due solely to W illiam s absence from the gam e for nearly six m onths until the spring because o f tendinitis in both w rists. “ This w as a very nice victory because I feel like I played Lindsay w hen she w as playing som e o f her best tennis, and now I’ve beaten the No. 1 and 2 players in the rankings successively,” W illiam s said. A sked w hether she thought o f h erself as No. 1, W illiam s said: “O h,yeah. I always feel like I’m the best p layer__ No. 1 is definitely one o f m y goals. I’m trying.” P resident C linton w atched the m e n ’s s e m ifin a ls w o n by P ete Sam pras and R ussia’s M arat Safin, a n d h a d p la n n e d to w a tc h th e w om en’s final — the first betw een A m erican-bom w om en since Tracy A ustin beat Chris Evert in 1979. But he left w hen show ers delayed the start o f the m atch m ore than an hour and a half. But m ost o f the fans stayed right to the end at 8:19 p.m ., the latest finish ever for a w om en ’ s final. T he m atch was not alw ays p re tty > as Williams and Davenport pummeled flat line drives, going for the com ers, the sides, the baseline, finding them often, but nearly as often ju st m issing o r hitting wildly. The 20-year-old Williams, fulfilling the cham pionship dream s her father in stilled in her since childhood, served at up to 117 m ph, hit eight aces, and saved a dozen break points while yielding on her serve three times. W illiam s, far m ore m ature a player than w hen she reached the O pen final in her debut three years ago, show ed she could handle D avenport’s less pow erful serves, breaking her five times. A t 24, D av e n p o rt sh o w ed in reaching the final that she rem ains a huge threat to add to the three m ajors sh e’s already w on — the 1998 U.S. O pen, 1999 W im bledon and 2000 A ustralian Open. But she d o esn 't have the range and speed and sheer a th le tic is m th a t W illia m s h as brandished this sum m er. D avenport, who had the longest w inning streak on the w om en’s tour — 21 m atches — until W illiam s Venus Williams, o f the United States, smiles with her trophy after defeating Lindsay Davenport in the women's finals at the U.S. Open tennis tournament Saturday, Sept. 9, in New York. Williams won 6-4, 7-5. surpassed her last w eek, has lost to W illiam s now in five o f their past six m atches, all o f them in straight sets. Will iams looked as 1 f she w ould be in trouble at the start, beginning the m atch w ith a foot fault and falling behind 1-4 as D avenport broke her twice. “I feel like I w asn ’t taking my opportunities very w ell,” W illiam s said. “ I w as m issing a little too much and m aybe hitting a little too hard. She w as playing at a high level, but I think m aybe I was giving her what she w anted. I kept feeding her. I was giving her the spoon.” W illiam s dug in resolutely, as she has throughout her w inning streak, and broke D avenport back to begin a run o f six straight gam es. D avenport double-faulted twice to end the first set, and her broad shoulders sagged as she w alked to her chair, angry with h erself for giving so m uch away. “ I should have w on that set,” Davenport said. I h ad alo to fch an ces to w in th e s e c o n d s e t. I ’m disappointed. A t this level you ju st can ’t do that. I thought I was breaking enough. I ju st co u ld n ’t serve well en o u g h to h o ld m y ow n. S h e ’s definitely the No. 1 player right now.” C linton m ade a congratulatory phone call after the m atch, as he did last yearto Serena, and Williams asked boldly and with a laugh w hat he could do to reduce her taxes. “N ot too m uch right now ,” the president said. “ I think there ought to be new rules for athletes.” To w hich W illiam s responded, “ Should I read your lips?” W hen W illiam s asked him w hy he d id n 't stay to w atch, C linton said he had to get home for dinner wi th H i 11 ary. W hen Clinton invited W illiam s to visit the W hite H ouse, she said: “I ’ll see what I can do about it.” v o ic e You get everything you need to do business better with Eschelon Telecom. 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