Lindsay Crashes At Open
Reputations can be difficult to shake in tennis, especially when the major tournaments bring familiar habits to life. Sunday night, Lindsay Davenport’s reputation crashed down upon her in a stunning, embarrassing match at the U.S. Open.
Davenport took the court as the latest hope for American women, in the wake of a wonderful summer. She left as the same old Lindsay, a 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 loser to 32nd-ranked Linda Wild.
If you’d never seen either woman play, you would have picked Wild as the one with promise. Bounding energetically about the court, unleashing an athletic, whip-like forehand, she was easily the better and more fit player. Davenport was the one with the Olympic gold medal, the 16-match winning streak and the recent tour victory over Steffi Graf, but suddenly her much-publicized weaknesses had been exposed again: Too big. Too slow. Not equipped for a long, difficult match. And indifferent to the result, shrugging it off as just another day.
As it turned out, the night of high intrigue was just beginning. Todd Martin, who easily handled British star Tim Henman in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, found himself overwhelmed in Sunday night’s rematch, 6-2, 7-6, 6-4. While Henman moves on for glory and country, Martin might be recalling another Wimbledon moment: Losing the semifinals to Malivai Washington after leading 5-1 in the fifth set.
In the eyes of most observers, Davenport’s loss was the most surprising. The hell of it, for Davenport supporters, is that Wild could disappear just as quickly in the quarterfinals, where she will play No. 4 seed Conchita Martinez. Wild has defeated Martina Navratilova and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario over a seven-year run on the tour, but she had never reached the fourth round of a Grand Slam, and she lost to the vastly inexperienced Venus Williams just two weeks ago in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
The rest of the women’s play went to form, although Monica Seles looked decidedly vulnerable in the first set of her 7-5, 6-0 victory over Sadrine Testud of France. Seles’ aching shoulder has reduced her first serve to a 75-mph pushover, and at times the ailment seems to affect her overall command. Seles is expected to get through the quarters against Amanda Coetzer, who defeated Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-1.
A lively fourth-rounder is expected today between third-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Martina Hingis, the composed 16-year-old who owns the 16th seed and many admirers. But most of the attention will be thrust upon top-seeded Steffi Graf and 15-year-old Anna Kournikova, who will stage an even more intriguing present-vs.-future confrontation.
On the men’s side, Pete Sampras was thoroughly dominant in his 6-3, 6-4, 6-2 thrashing of Russian veteran Alexander Volkov. Sampras had been expecting a fourth-round encounter with Mark Philippoussis, the 19-year-old who completely overpowered him in a third-round round shocker at the Australian Open, and Philippoussis obliged convincingly. Paired against Cedric Pioline, twice a Wimbledon quarterfinalist and a 1993 finalist here, Philippoussis scored a 6-3, 6-2, 6-4 victory that sustained the awestruck chatter about his serve.
Another treat should be Henman against Edberg, whose Grand Slam farewell tour continued magnificently in a 6-4, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1 triumph over Paul Haarhuis.
Elsewhere, Guy Forget of France outlasted Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands 6-2, 7-5, 4-6, 4-6, 6-0 to earn a fourth-round match against Alex Corretja of Spain, who defeated Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 6-2, 4-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3. And Goran Ivanisevic beat Germany’s Hendrik Dreekman, 6-3, 6-2, 7-6 (11-9) and will meet Andrei Medvedev, who had a 6-2, 6-4, 6-3 breeze against Petr Korda.