Venus, Davenport make it all American final

Third-seeded Venus earned her second trip to the final here with a tough 6-4 3-6 7-5 victory over World No 1 Martina Hingis. It was not an easy ride for Venus. Down 5-3 in the decisive set and two points away from defeat, the 20-year-old American scrambled to earn the victory.

“I really didn’t want to lose,” Venus said. “I felt I deserved to be in the final and I find a way to get there”.

Venus said she was not content with her game on Saturday, committing a total of 47 unforced errors. “My balls kept flying long during the entire match and I wasn’t moving well. But I just kept slugging away, hanging in there and things worked out.”

But the African-American said she is confident that she will produce a better quality of play on Saturday. “This is the final of a Grand Slam. Everything is at stake. I’m not going to give anything away,” Venus said.

In the other semi-final, Davenport, the second seed, fought off a late comeback from 25-ranked Russian teen Elena Dementieva.

Up a set and 5-2 with four match points on her serve, Davenport tightened up and dropped the next four games to let Dementieva go up 6-5 before prevailing for a 6-2 7-6 (7-5) victory in one hour and 21 minutes.

“I’m happy I won in two sets and to be in the final, but disappointed by the way it ended,” Davenport said.

For the final, Davenport has an advantage on paper, leading Venus 9 to 5 in head-to-heads. But Venus, who won four of the last five meetings, will cause enormous problems to the tall Californian.

She generates the same power from the baseline, has a big serve, moves better than Davenport and charges the net more these days, something she picked up by playing doubles along side sister Serena.

“Playing Venus is a little more difficult for me,” Davenport said. “She serves big and hits the ball hard. I’ll have to keep the ball deep and not let her step in. I’ll have to go for winners when I see an opening before she does.”

The elder of the Williams sisters beat Davenport in the Wimbledon final this year, becoming the first African-American to capture the title since Althea Gibson in 1958.

She has not lost a match since then, winning WTA title this summer in Stanford, San Diego and New Haven while brushing opponents aside along the way without dropping a set.

With the win against Hingis, Venus stretched her winning streak to 25. “If it could continue this way for ever, it would be unbelievable,” she said.

Venus said her second trip to the final will be nothing like the first one where she was dismantled 6-0 6-4 by Martina Hingis in 1997.

The men’s doubles title went to Australian Lleyton Hewitt and Max Mirnyi of Belarus who defeated the American Rich Leach and Ellis Ferreira of South Africa in three sets.

Hewitt and Mirnyi, teaming up for the first time, beat the veteran American-South African pair 6-4 5-7 7-6 (7-5) in 1 hour 55 minutes to become the first unseeded duo in the history of the Open to win the doubles title.

“It’s been an unbelievable week. It’s a fantastic win. I’d like to thank Max for playing with me,” Hewitt said.

At 19, Hewitt became the youngest man in the Open era to win a Grand Slam doubles title, stretching his doubles winning streak to 11 matches.