|
|
| |
| ||
|
| ||
 |
 Nobody's driving Miss Davenport
Posted: Monday September 07, 1998 12:34 PM
Sports Illustrated staff writer Jon Wertheim will file frequently from Flushing Meadows during the U.S. Open. Lindsay Davenport may describe herself as "just a normal kid from California," but even vanilla Lindsay isn't wholly devoid of quirks. The No. 2 seed in the women's draw and the hottest player on the WTA Tour, Davenport has a unique way of calming her nerves before her matches: she drives from her midtown Manhattan hotel to the National Tennis Center in Queens.Most of us who've had the ill-fortune of driving in New York find it roughly as enjoyable as setting fire to our face and extinguishing the flame with a ball peen hammer. But Davenport, who still lives in L.A., where negotiating ungodly traffic is a way of life, doesn't see it that way. "I just find driving really relaxing," she says. "I'm totally in control and it clears my mind. I think my coach [Robert Van't Hof] would rather I let him drive, but I'm not going to give up the wheel." Give Davenport this much: she already speaks the language of a seasoned cabbie. "I usually shoot up FDR Drive and take the Triboro Bridge but, depending on what time of it is, I'll take the Midtown Tunnel if I think that will be faster." Whatever works. In her first three matches, the tournament's highest seeded reverse commuter has dropped a grand total of seven games and has yet to lose more than two games in a set. So has also exhibited a class not often associated with today's top WTA players. In the first set of yesterday's third round match, her opponent, Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascal scrambled for a ball and took a nasty spill. Though the ball made it over the net, Davenport conceded the point and instead looked solicitously at Pascal to make sure she was OK. All week -- all summer, for that matter -- Davenport has been answering questions about her futility in Grand Slams events. Though she's been on a tear this summer, winning three straight events and positioning herself within sniffing distance of the No.1 ranking, she has never advanced past the semifinals in a Major. "Playing well for seven straight matches is hard and it's almost inevitable you won't play your best for every match," says Davenport, whose next opponent, Nathalie Tauziat, defeated her at Wimbledon. "But hopefully if that happens, I'll be able to play through it." If so, she may just drive home as the U.S. Open champion. When Andre Agassi requested, during a recent press conference, that his interrogator define the "formful," he should have been referred to the women's draw. According to form, no fewer than 14 of the 16 seeded ladies advanced to the fourth round. And the two "upsets" were hardly upsets at all. Kim Po, a solid former top-20 player who took time off earlier this year to nurse injuries and is now climbing back, beat one of the seeds, No. 14, Dominique van Roost. The other, No. 16 Ai Sugiyama, had to retire from her second-round match on account of injuries. By the end of the day on Sunday, only seeded players remained. "I don't know how to explain it, but maybe it's just that the top players have been on their games," says Davenport. "Also, some of the floaters who used to be dangerous are now seeded." The result is that thus far, the women's draw has provided roughly as much suspense as a Scooby Doo mystery. On the other hand, all this "formfulness" means that virtually every women's match from here on out ought to be compelling. Volleys: The American men acquitted themselves well early on but after Jan-Michael Gambill and Geoff Grant bit the dust in heartbreaking fifth set tiebreakers, only two Yankees remained. The good news is that their names are Agassi and Pete Sampras. The bad is that they are on schedule to face each other in the quarters. ...Here's a good reason for top players to take care of business in the early rounds. After staving off three match points and playing ten of tennis in his two matches, sixth-seeded Greg Rusedski simply ran out of gas in his third marathon against Jan Siemerink. ...The four players on the ATP Tour who hit two-fisted shots off both wings -- Gambill, Grant, Fabrice Santoro and Byron Black -- all advanced to the third round. ...More than a few observant fans were surprised to see Jim Pierce on the grounds of the National Tennis Center. Though he has no contact with his daughter, Mary, Pierce currently coaches American baseliner Vince Spadea Jr.. ...After losing to Irina Spirlea in tennis' approximation of a blood feud, Serena Williams was a wee bit testy. Asked about the infamous bumping incident between Spirlea and her sister, she snapped to the questioner, "Do you have a problem?" When he playfully answered, "Yes," Serena shot back: "Are you coming out of the closet?"
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
