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.”
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