Davenport's No. 1 goal: staying at top

By Charles Bricker
CBS SportsLine Tennis Writer
Nov. 10, 1998

Is Lindsay Davenport a changed person since becoming No. 1 on the Corel WTA Tour? You must be kidding.

The
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    • 6-foot-2 Davenport, who's still out there walking her dogs in Newport Beach, Calif., worked hard for everything she has achieved in tennis. She remains thrilled about unseating Martina Hingis and becoming the first native-born American to reach No. 1 since Chris Evert in 1985.

    "I'm recognized more on the streets and I get cards and letters from fellow players, and from fans around the world," she said. "It's quite overwhelming."

    But she's not letting the thrill overpower her work habits. "It's still all about tennis and trying to get better,'' she said.

    Her immediate goal is to finish the year at No. 1. With two tournaments left, Davenport or Hingis will be No. 1 when the season ends.

    BESIDES RAISING HER CONFIDENCE LEVEL to a new high and improving her court mobility, Davenport has scheduled wisely, refusing to take long plane rides in search of points. She discovered long ago how counter-productive that can be -- becoming emotionally tired from the long trips and unable to play at a high level.

    She
    Lindsay Davenport
    Current No. 1 Lindsay Davenport hopes to be the top women's player at year's end. (Allsport)
    cannot afford to give away any edges. She is not a gifted athlete such as Venus Williams. She doesn't have great anticipation like Hingis. She doesn't have Steffi Graf's quickness. She's a power player and she needs to be fresh.

    Davenport's U. S. Open victory, beating Williams in the semis and Hingis in the final, produced an outpouring of emotion for this young woman who seems more ungainly than fluid on the court.

    "For some reason," Davenport said, "I've touched a lot of hearts."

    She has indeed. Part of it is her unassuming manner. Part of it is her refusal to get involved in a display of arrogance. Most of it is because fans are delighted to see her hard work pay off.

    Davenport plays at Philadelphia this week, and the $2 million Chase Championships (Nov. 16-22), which is for the top 16 ranked players.

    Who's No. 1?

    Just about the only thing we know for sure about No. 1 on the men's side is that it will be either Pete Sampras, for a record sixth consecutive year, or Marcelo Rios.

    It seems unlikely either will win the ATP Championships Nov. 23-29 in Hannover, Germany, where No. 1 likely will be decided.

    Sampras is playing a sixth consecutive week with a back that isn't in great condition. And Rios is hard-pressed to put his ground-stroking talents to use indoors.

    No. 3 Patrick Rafter, the U.S. Open champion, will not play the ATP Championships. He has chronic knee problems that bothered him in a three-set, two-tiebreaker loss to Todd Martin in Paris. Even if he were to play, Rafter never has won an indoor tournament.

    At the ATP Championships, the top eight players are separated into two groups, with the Nos. 1 and 2 seeds in different groups, and they play a three-match round robin. The top two players from each group play the semis and finals.

    Last year, Sampras won the event after losing his opening match to Carlos Moya. He then went on to beat Greg Rusedski, Rafter, Jonas Bjorkman and Yevgeny Kafelnikov.

    Rafter, meanwhile, defeated Rusedski and Moya but lost to Sampras and didn't get out of the round-robin.

    This is Rios' first ATP Championships.

    The Red turns green

    Persistence has paid off for promoter Mark Baron, who has endured five mediocre years with America's Red Clay tournament, a lead-up to the French Open in early May. The World Series (Level 3) tournament was always played the same time as a major European red-clay event.

    Now, The Red is moving a few miles from Coral Springs, Fla. to Delray Beach, Fla., which was going to be the site for the U.S. Davis Cup final, if the Americans had beaten Italy.

    And in 2000, Baron's tournament will be moved up the calendar to a few weeks before the Lipton and will attract a glut of major players for the first time.

    The envelope, please

    The Corel WTA Tour will announce its annual awards in two weeks, but there isn't much mystery.

    Second serves

  • Anna Kournikova's game is making progress, but there has been no breakthrough for the Russian. Not in the way there has been a breakthrough for contemporaries Hingis and Venus Williams. Kournikova, No. 13 this week, will complete her third full season on the women's tour and still has not won a title.

  • As expected, Tom Gullikson was offered, and accepted, a sixth year as U.S. Davis Cup captain.

  • Overcoming a lot of injuries this year, Mark Knowles of the Bahamas (knee and shoulder) and Daniel Nestor of Canada (stomach muscle) qualified for the World Doubles Championships at Hartford, Conn. (Nov. 18-22) despite being in treatment most of the year and not playing much during the first five months. Also in the WDC are No. 1 Jacco Eltingh/Paul Haarhuis, No. 2 Todd Woodbridge/Mark Woodforde and No. 3 Mahesh Bhupathi/Leander Paes.

  • A note on Eltingh, who, you might remember, left the U.S. Open in the first week to be at the birth of his first child in The Netherlands: This will be his last tournament. He'll retire at age 28 with four singles titles, 43 doubles titles and $4.8 million in prize money. He and Haarhuis have won 38 doubles titles, eight this year. This will leave Haarhuis looking for a new partner, and it probably will be countryman Jan Siemerink, also 28, who has had an excellent singles year.

    Charles Bricker covers tennis for The Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale.

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