Davenport’s Goals for ’98 Down to 1

Before a long-awaited rest, readjustment and reflection, there remains one final task for Lindsay Davenport in 1998:

Finishing the year with the No. 1 ranking.

To do that, Davenport, who became the top-ranked women’s player in mid-October, merely needs to win her opening match against Sandrine Testud of France at the season-ending Chase Championships, which starts today in New York.

“There’s still a lot on the line, to try to end the year No. 1, so in that case, it’s still kind of inspiring,” said Davenport, who suffered her first loss since officially becoming No. 1, losing to Steffi Graf on Sunday in the final at Philadelphia.

“It’s been a long year. Especially the last few months have been so exciting, you get drained at the end.

“You have to go down [emotionally]. I’m not having too many expectations. I want to do well, so I can finish No. 1. But whatever happens it has still been an unbelievable year.”

Even as recently as July, Davenport herself could not have envisioned the summer and fall script of 1998. Leading up to the U.S. Open, she won three of four tournaments and prevailed in the Open by not dropping a set.

“After Wimbledon, if someone had told me [I’d] become No. 1, I’d be like, ‘No way, I have to win every tournament,’ ” she said. “And then I won five tournaments in three months and I never would have expected to do that.”

After she rests her sore right arm--”I am so ready for this year to be over,” Davenport said--she will work on readjusting her goals for 1999.

“I’ll probably talk about it in December, but first and foremost would be Australia,” she said. “Rankings have never been a big goal. Next year, I can only go down, whether I stay there or not. I can only stay the same or go down.”

OTHER TOP CONTENDERS

1. Steffi Graf--Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna did the damage herself at the pretournament draw, pulling out Graf’s name as a first-round opponent. Graf, who suffered through a variety of injuries in 1998 and contemplated retirement, closed fast and radically shook up the women’s hierarchy the last two weeks, winning at Leipzig, Germany, and Philadelphia.

The year of the veteran has overshadowed the hyped new teenagers on the block, and Graf’s recent resurgence certainly provided an emphatic punctuation to that trend. Surely, Graf took an immense satisfaction at dismissing Hingis, who earlier in 1998 had dismissed Graf as something of a injured relic whose time had passed. Graf is a five-time winner of the championships in New York, most recently in 1996.

2. Martina Hingis--Four titles are not a bad season by any standard, but for Hingis it illustrated a substantial drop-off. Last year, she won 12 tournaments and three of the four Grand Slams. After reaching the U.S. Open final in September, she struggled with injuries and has not reached a final since, losing to Fed Cup teammate Patty Schnyder at Munich, Germany; Dominique Van Roost at Filderstadt, Germany; and Graf at Philadelphia in the quarterfinals.

3. Monica Seles--It’s hard to predict what Seles is going to do these days. Before the U.S. Open, she looked lackluster at Manhattan Beach and sensational a week later in winning at Montreal. More recently, she has performed consistently, losing to Mary Pierce in the Moscow final and Davenport in the Philadelphia semifinals.

4. Jana Novotna--The defending Chase champion carried herself with visible confidence after her heartwarming Wimbledon victory in July. An injured back kept her out of action for about a month before she returned at Philadelphia.

An ominous stat: She is 4-27 against Graf, her first-round opponent.

Not appearing in New York is fifth-ranked Venus Williams. Williams, who is only 18, has been suffering from a sore left knee in 1998 and withdrew from the tournament on Thursday.

FOOT FAULT IN MOUTH

Richard Krajicek, meet Marc Rosset . . .

Krajicek, the outspoken 1996 Wimbledon champion from the Netherlands, used to be primarily known as the guy who once insulted the women’s tour by calling most of them “lazy, fat pigs.”

Rosset stepped up last week in Moscow, reacting to criticism that the men’s tour lacks charisma. He lashed out, saying only four or five women on the tour were in good shape.

That wasn’t all. The 1992 Olympic gold medalist from Switzerland added that he thought the women’s game was “really weak.”

“I don’t think Pete Sampras, to stay No. 1, has plenty of time to go for shopping or sightseeing and to [be a] fashion model on the street,” he said Friday.

By Saturday, he was furiously backpedaling--not easy for someone who is 6 feet 7.

He apologized to women’s tennis and said he had “a lot of respect for some of the girls” on the tour, “especially Steffi Graf.”

Of course, three-time Wimbledon finalist Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia found himself in the fray, taking shots at the women’s tour, with the exception of Graf. “For me, Steffi Graf is the best player in the history of women’s tennis,” he said in Moscow. “All others are OK, but Steffi, if she wants to play, she beats everybody.”

DROP SHOTS

Pete Sampras is going to take another shot at playing in the Mercedes-Benz Cup at UCLA next year, along with defending champion Andre Agassi.

Sampras had been scheduled to play this year’s event at the Los Angeles Tennis Center, but withdrew shortly before the tournament because he was recovering from minor foot surgery.

Speaking of Agassi, he did a favor for tournament organizers at last week’s challenger event in Las Vegas. In 1997, Agassi plummeted to No. 141, took a wild card into the Las Vegas event and began the long road back, losing in the final.

This year, the No. 5-ranked Agassi played doubles in the Las Vegas Challenger with his coach, Brad Gilbert. Agassi-Gilbert even won a round before losing in the quarterfinals.

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This Week’s Tournaments

Phoenix/ATP Tour Doubles Championship

* Site: Hartford, Conn.

* Draw: Eight-team round robin

* Seeded No. 1: Jacco Eltingh-Paul Haarhuis

* Defending champions: Rick Leach-Jonathan Stark

* Teams that qualified: Eltingh-Haarhuis, Mahesh Bhupathi-Leander Paes, Todd Woodbridge-Mark Woodforde, Mark Knowles-Daniel Nestor, Ellis Ferreira-Rick Leach, Sandon Stolle-Cyril Suk, Olivier Delaitre-Fabrice Santoro, Don Johnson-Francisco Montana.

*

WTA Chase Championships

* Site: New York (Madison Square Garden)

* Draw: Top 16 players qualify

* Defending champion: Jana Novotna

* Seeded No. 1: Lindsay Davenport

* Field: Top players include Davenport, Martina Hingis, Novotna, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Steffi Graf.