Davenport stops Venus Williams for crown

The Davenport-Williams final on Sunday afternoon was the dream matchup for the tournament organizers in this quiet Austrian city.For the 20-year-old Williams, who won the Olympic Gold medal in Sydney, it was the first time she had lost a match since the quarter-finals of the French Open on June 6.

Davenport took an early lead by breaking her opponent in the very first game, hanging on to the advantage until Williams converted the second of two break points to even things at 3-3.

Davenport immediately countered, then pressed home the advantage and served out the final game of the set without conceding a point.The second set went to Williams, wrapping it up with a powerful passing forehand that left Davenport stranded in mid-court.

Williams started aggressively in the decisive third set, but Davenport countered strongly and was rewarded with the break to 4-2 which all but sealed the match.

Davenport then went on to wrap up the remaining two games without conceding a point.

Although Davenport retains the career edge with 10 victories in their 16 meetings, Williams, up to the Linz tournament, has had the upper hand, winning five of their last six encounters, including Wimbledon and US Open. Davenport last beat Williams in the semi-finals in Philadelphia last year.

Norman wins
SHANGHAI: Magnus Norman took just 10 minutes on Monday to end the rain-wrecked men’s final of the $ 375,000 Shanghai Open left straggling after the weekend with a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 victory.

The Swedish top seed subdued Holland’s Sjwng Schalken, seeded-seventh, in two brief games as the pair came back out a day late to the Xian Xia tennis centre to complete their match which began on Sunday.

Going in, Norman led 4-3 with a break in the third set. He quickly wrapped up the match, holding for 5-3 and breaking the frustrated Dutchman for a final time to notch his fifth title of the season.

The hard-luck match went through dramatic scheduling twists on a wet Sunday in Shanghai, the culmination of a week where it rained on the tennis for six out of seven days.

Late on Sunday, the contest was reluctantly interrupted with Norman leading 6-4, 4-6, 4-3 after a third set stoppage of two hours, 10 minutes at 2-all.The victory was Norman’s third without a loss against Schalken, who won the title in Tokyo the previous week.

The victory followed trophys this season in Auckland, the Rome Masters, Bastad and Long Island for the 24-year-old Swede, losing French Open finalist to Gustavo Kuerten.

He currently stands fourth in the season-long Champions points race and is next in the queue to qualify for the eight-man Masters set for Lisbon from November 28.

Hingis leads
HAMBURG: Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport maintained their huge lead in the latest women’s tennis rankings issued on Monday.Switzerland’s Hingis, who is due to play in Moscow this week, tops the bill with 5,812 points. Davenport has 5,584 and fellow-American Williams 4,072 points.

The top 10: 1. Martina Hingis (Switzerland) 5,812 points; 2. Lindsay Davenport (US) 5,584; 3. Venus Williams (US) 4,072; 4. Monica Seles (US) 2,889; 5. Conchita Martinez (Spain) 2,716; 6. Mary Pierce (France) 2,715; 7. Serena Williams (US) 2,306; 8. Nathalie Tauziat (France) 2,142; 9. Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario (Spain) 2,130; 10. Sandrine Testud (France) 1,756.