Graf Slowed by Davenport

Maybe we should forget about those other supposed rivalries involving Lindsay Davenport and the hyped teens.

How about that woman bordering on 30?

Steffi Graf vs. Davenport is gradually unfolding as a compelling matchup. The German dealt Davenport her first loss as No. 1 at Philadelphia last Sunday and nearly did it again here Saturday at Madison Square Garden in the Chase Championships before pulling up with a strained right hamstring in the third set.

Graf was shifting her game into another gear, poised to take a 4-2 third-set lead when she felt a sharp pain. She then needed an injury timeout after losing the game, having wasted three break-point opportunities. From 3-3, Davenport promptly swept the final three games and prevailed, 6-1, 2-6, 6-3, in the semifinals, ending Graf’s two-tournament, 12-match winning streak.

“I wasn’t expecting much of myself today,” said Davenport, who needed an injury timeout herself for blisters on her left foot.

“This morning when I was warming up, I didn’t feel great. I knew Steffi was playing well. So I kind of figured, ‘Well, if I lose that’s OK.’ I really didn’t know what to say. But I thought I’d give it my best shot. Neither one of us played that great.”

Although Graf, 29, leads their series, 7-4, her five matches in 1998 against Davenport have been filled with drama. Davenport, 22, won the first two, including a three-setter in March at Indian Wells in which Graf retired with an injured left hamstring in the third set.

Graf came back to win the last two confrontations, including the three-set Philadelphia final. Both players acknowledged that Saturday’s semifinal was well below the quality of last week’s match.

“It’s been a long three weeks, and I guess everything feels pretty tired,” said Graf, who said she wasn’t the same after the injury. “I guess it was just a little bit too much today. . . . I am disappointed right now, but I think there would be something wrong if I wouldn’t be. I gave it everything I had the past three weeks, and that was a lot. It has been great, exciting. It has been a lot of fun. That’s why I can only look back with a very positive attitude.”

In today’s best-of-five-set final, Davenport will play second-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland. Hingis survived a few nervous moments in her semifinal against Irina Spirlea of Romania, winning 6-2, 7-6 (9-7), as she fought off two set points in the tiebreaker.

“I opened this year with the Australian Open victory, so I’d like to close it up the same way,” Hingis said.

Hingis was asked whether Graf had sent any sort of message with her performance the last three weeks.

“She was very fresh. If you play six, seven tournaments in a year [actually 13], that is not very much,” said Hingis, who lost to Graf in Philadelphia. “You can see now she played three tournaments in a row and wasn’t in the best shape anymore.

“As I’ve always said, it is hard to keep going three tournaments in a row. It is almost impossible in today’s women’s tennis.

“The last two tournaments she did great. She beat four of us top-10 players, but we weren’t in our top level.”

Davenport is 6-6 against Hingis, and has won three of their last four meetings, all in tournament finals, most recently in straight sets at the U.S. Open. Her lone loss to Hingis in 1998 was at Indian Wells.

The always quirky Spirlea declined to make a prediction for the final.

“I don’t know. I am not a psychic or something,” she said.

Spirlea also insisted she did not blow a 5-1 second-set lead.

“I am telling you, it was not 5-1,” she said. “I am sure it was 5-2.”

The scorecard said otherwise.

Maybe the players are all just exhausted, physically and mentally, at the end of a long season.

Even Davenport is running on fumes. In addition to the blisters, her right arm is sore and she needed treatment for her neck during the doubles final Saturday night. Davenport and Natasha Zvereva of Belarus defeated the French team of Alexandra Fusai and Nathalie Tauziat, 6-7 (8-6), 7-5, 6-3.

“If you asked me Monday if I would get to the finals, I would have said, ‘No way,’ ” Davenport said.

Was it important to reaffirm her No. 1 status?

“No, I know that sounds weird,” she said, with a laugh. “For me, coming into this tournament, you always kind of sit down and think about things. I thought, ‘Well, I’ve had a great, great last four months. I have had an unbelievable year. Let me try to do the best I can this week.’ If that doesn’t happen, that’s fine.

“I’ve been able to tough it out, hang in there.”