this is a fab pic of her of the wta site
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STANFORD, Calif. - Sunday's final at the Bank of the West Classic couldn't have been a tighter matchup.
The conclusion to a week on the Stanford University campus pitted a pair of former World No.1s duking it out - each looking for their third title at the event. Each player had previously won two titles at the Tier II event and Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams were meeting in the Stanford final for an unprecendented fourth time.
In the end, Lindsay Davenport came out on top - salvaging a pair of tiebreaks to bring her a 41st title in a vicious 76(4) 57 76(4) finale.
Davenport's nearly three hour victory against Williams not only garners her this week's Win of the Week, but her third title at the event also helped her grab this week's WTATour.com Player of the Week honors.
Both players expected a hard fought match on Sunday with each using blasts from the baseline to grab the upperhand. In fact, it wasn't clear until the very last point which player would emerge with the title.
"We both played a really close match, we played our absolute best," Davenport said. "Every set was so close, a few points here and there. I tried to mentally stay tough and play agressive even tough that brought me some unforced errors."
Each player experienced highs and lows during the epic encounter as Williams struggled at times with her forehand and missed opportunities on break points, while Davenport's service game went missing in action in a few critical instances.
The length of the match may have come as a surprise to both players, especially Williams, whose longest match leading into the final lasted a mere 1 hour, 2 minutes - her straight sets win against Amy Frazier.
The victory over Williams helped Davenport came ever so close to tying up the career series against one of her toughest rivals. Williams now leads their head-to-head matchups, 12-11, but most importantly for Davenport was the fact that she scored her first win against Williams in almost four years. She had suffered six straight losses to Williams and hadn't defeated her countrywoman since winning the championship match in Linz back in 2000.
The conclusion to a week on the Stanford University campus pitted a pair of former World No.1s duking it out - each looking for their third title at the event. Each player had previously won two titles at the Tier II event and Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams were meeting in the Stanford final for an unprecendented fourth time.
In the end, Lindsay Davenport came out on top - salvaging a pair of tiebreaks to bring her a 41st title in a vicious 76(4) 57 76(4) finale.
Davenport's nearly three hour victory against Williams not only garners her this week's Win of the Week, but her third title at the event also helped her grab this week's WTATour.com Player of the Week honors.
Both players expected a hard fought match on Sunday with each using blasts from the baseline to grab the upperhand. In fact, it wasn't clear until the very last point which player would emerge with the title.
"We both played a really close match, we played our absolute best," Davenport said. "Every set was so close, a few points here and there. I tried to mentally stay tough and play agressive even tough that brought me some unforced errors."
Each player experienced highs and lows during the epic encounter as Williams struggled at times with her forehand and missed opportunities on break points, while Davenport's service game went missing in action in a few critical instances.
The length of the match may have come as a surprise to both players, especially Williams, whose longest match leading into the final lasted a mere 1 hour, 2 minutes - her straight sets win against Amy Frazier.
The victory over Williams helped Davenport came ever so close to tying up the career series against one of her toughest rivals. Williams now leads their head-to-head matchups, 12-11, but most importantly for Davenport was the fact that she scored her first win against Williams in almost four years. She had suffered six straight losses to Williams and hadn't defeated her countrywoman since winning the championship match in Linz back in 2000.
:bounce:
