March 24, 2000
By J. Fred Sidhu
Indian Wells, Ca. - Lindsay Davenport of the
United States and Spaniard Alex Corretja enjoyed their visit to
this tennis mecca as they both won the Tennis Masters Series Indian
Wells singles titles last week at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
Davenport was losing to Hingis, 6-4, 4-2 before she reeled off ten straight games to win the title. Hingis is still ranked number one in the world, however Davenport, ranked number two, is closing in on the number one ranking after defeating Hingis for the fifth straight time and eight out of the last ten times they have met.
"I've played really well against her. She definitely brings out the best in me," Davenport said following the match. "I get very fired up every time I play her."
When asked how she came back to win against the number one player in the world, Davenport said, "I figured I was going to have to start going for it even more, just trying to get on my toes, bounce around and see what I could do. I hit a couple of good shots to break. All of a sudden the match turned with that one break. She got quite frustrated as soon as it got back to four all. After that, I think the momentum just carried me along."
Hingis did everything she could to keep the match from slipping away, but in the end, Davenport's relentless groundstrokes were too much for the Swiss Miss.
"I guess I just lost a little bit concentration. I was getting tired. I still had to do most of the running and chasing down the balls," Hingis explained. "I know my game is the running and the defense but I was too defensive at the end when I had those chances. I don't think Lindsay lifted her game. She was just very basic, very standard but at a very high level throughout the whole match."
The meeting between Hingis and Davenport was highly anticipated as it was a rematch of the Australian Open final in January which Davenport won in straight sets. Two weeks ago, both players reached the finals of the tour stop in Scottsdale, Arizona only to have the match canceled due to rain.
With her victory over Hingis, Davenport improves her career record against Hingis to 11-7. She is the only player in the top twenty with a winning record against Hingis.
Davenport improved her match record for 2000 to 19 wins and one loss. She has won 16 straight matches. Hingis' record fell to 20-3. She had her 12 match winning streak snapped.
On the men's side, Corretja, with an impressive straight set victory over Enqvist, became the first Spaniard to win the Indian Wells tournament since Jose Higueras.
The victory was Corretja's first tournament victory since 1998. "I can tell you, it's huge. It's really big for me," he said after the match. "The best thing in tennis is just to find yourself happy on the court, and I found it pretty nice this week. Fortunately for me, I won a title again. Last year I lost three finals, and none of them were this important."
Corretja, who suffered from a virus that left him weak for most of last year, said he is one hundred percent healthy this year. The Spaniard improved his 2000 match record to 10-3. Coming into Indian Wells, Corretja was 53 in the ATP Champions Race, but with his victory last week, he improved to sixth. It was a grueling week for Corretja who had to win six matches in seven days to win the title. "My game was perfect...I know Thomas did a lot of mistakes, but I think it's a combination of everything. He went for it too much," said Corretja.
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