Hingis halts Davenport march

Hingis lost in finals at Sydney, Philadelphia, the 1999 WTA final, the 6 Australian Open and Indian Wells since last beating Davenport. Another planned finals match-up last month in Scottsdale, Arizona, was wiped out due to rain.

“It’s great to win a big one again,” Hingis said. “I’m finally winning a great tournament again. I had Tokyo but Lindsay wasn’t there. Here it’s special. It’s where I became number one for the first time.”

Hingis, who won $ 350,000 here, was the top seed and World No 1 with Davenport a close second entering the event by virtue of her title-winning triumphs over the Swiss star.

Despite the defeat, Davenport will move ahead of Hingis into the top spot on Monday when the newest WTA rankings are released.

Davenport’s win streak was the longest by a WTA player since Hingis began the 1997 season 37-0. Davenport is 24-2 this year, her only prior loss coming to France’s Amelie Mauresmo in the Sydney final last January.

Davenport, who leads the career rivalry with Hingis 11-8, was down a set and a break two weeks ago in Indian Wells before roaring back to take the final 10 games and the match.

But here she struggled early and was never able to slow Hingis’ march to the title. Hingis, the 1997 champion here, rose to 25-3 this year with her 28th career WTA singles crown and second of the year. Davenport missed a chance for her 29th career title.

Part of the problem Davenport had was the energy lost in an emotional semi-final victory over France’s Sandrine Testud, a triumph that clinched Davenport’s rise to No 1.

“I wasn’t serving consistently. I didn’t return well,” Davenport said. “After winning against Sandrine, I almost felt I had left everything that night. I had a day off and that’s not an excuse, but I felt really flat”.

Newcombe warning

ADELAIDE: Australia’s Davis Cup captain John Newcombe warned his team not to become complacent following the withdrawal of top German Tommy Haas.

“(His loss) lessens their chances and weakens them,” Newcombe said. However, with the Australian line-up for the quarter-final tie yet to be finalised and an injury doubt over Mark Philippoussis, he warned against complacency.

“When you’ve got nothing to lose, you go for it and they could put in a blinder against us,” he said. “Our job is to make sure we play to our maximum which should be good enough to win, but you never know.”

Australian squad members Lleyton Hewitt and Mark Woodforde were expected to have their first practice sessions on Monday before the opening singles rubbers on Friday.

They were due here early Monday from Florida where Hewitt lost in the Masters Series semi-final to Pete Sampras and Woodforde partnered Todd Woodbridge to win the doubles.

Newcombe said Rafter, set to play doubles with Woodforde, would add singles duties to his workload if Philippoussis was forced out through injury. “Pat’s looking good and we wouldn’t be frightened to put him in but we have to wait and see what’s happening with Mark,” Newcombe said. “It’s not hopeful at this stage. He’s got this niggling calf injury that he’s been playing with for two weeks and the only way to get rid of it is to rest.”

“Looking ahead, he’s got a big year coming up so we want him as fit as possible.”