Final to Feature an Unlikely Pair

One finalist had not played in a WTA tour event since the French Open. Her opponent in today’s final at the Acura Classic got there by winning against the defending champion, a player she had not defeated in more than five years.

Needless to say, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport are not playing in the final at the Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach. The top two players in the world were dismissed on Saturday by Serena Williams and Julie Halard-Decugis of France in the semifinals.

Halard-Decugis struck first in the afternoon, defeating the top-seeded Davenport, 6-3, 7-5, in 68 minutes in the semifinals. At night, the sixth-seeded Williams did the job by an identical score, beating the second-seeded Hingis of Switzerland in 69 minutes.

Williams, who had been off the tour since the French Open, did not win in identical fashion, however. She produced a series of brilliant winners, and ran down a handful of difficult shots that would have been outright winners against anyone else.

She served seven aces and produced 36 winners to Hingis’ eight. And Hingis has not been exactly shabby lately, beating Williams’ sister, Venus, last Sunday to win at La Costa in Carlsbad, Calif., and reclaiming the No. 1 ranking from Davenport.

But the way Williams was playing on Saturday . . . was anyone capable of beating her?

“I can’t think of anyone,” said Williams, who faced only two break points, both in the first set.

Said Hingis: “Before the match started, I guess I still didn’t wake up and it was already over. She surprised me. She played very well from the beginning on, attacked and didn’t miss anything.

“Her serve, I just couldn’t break it at all. It was kind of depressing.”

Williams was pleased with her composure and consistency.

“A younger Serena, of course, she would have probably lost serve at the end of the match and several times during the match,” she said. “And she probably would have got upset and maybe even thrown her racket.

“Fortunately enough, I’ve eradicated that Serena and she’s outta here.”

Hingis and Williams could meet in the semifinals of the next event in Toronto. Typically, Hingis already was aware of that.

“She doesn’t play like this way every day,” she said. “Otherwise, she would be the better one, than Venus. Serena was all pumped for this tournament. She was just quicker than me today, always like a step ahead.”

Hingis noted her history against the Williams sisters.

“I never beat both in a row,” she said. “I always beat one and lose to the other. It’s funny.”

Davenport seemed more dismayed by her loss. Halard-Decugis had defeated her once in six meetings, at the French Open in 1994. It was the second shaky semifinal for Davenport, as she looked flat and listless against Venus Williams at La Costa.

This time, she was spraying the ball all over the place, committing 32 unforced errors to Halard-Decugis’ 12. Davenport had 23 unforced errors on the forehand side, 13 in the second set.

“I think I was awful,” Davenport said. “Nothing against her, but I missed a ton of forehands.”

She suffered a slight left hamstring injury in Friday night’s quarterfinal victory over Conchita Martinez of Spain but said the injury was not a factor.

“I was the one making all the errors,” Davenport said. “You don’t want to lose that way, either.”

It was a strange performance. Just when Davenport appeared to be taking control of the match, establishing a 5-2 second-set lead, she fell apart, losing the final five games. At 5-5, she was broken at 15, losing the game by netting two forehands and hitting two more out.

Davenport knew it would be nearly impossible to repeat her California sweep of last summer, winning three consecutive events. She won at Palo Alto this year and followed with two semifinal losses. This was hardly what she envisioned as she prepares to defend her U.S. Open title.

“I would have like to have done better,” she said.

Of course, Halard-Decugis had something to do with it. The 28-year-old has not lost a set in four matches here. The last time she defeated the No. 2-ranked player in the world was in 1994 against Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

Davenport said she played poorly and Mary Pierce said the same thing after losing in the quarterfinals on Friday to Halard-Decugis.

“I don’t care if they don’t want to play good against me,” she said, laughing. “She [Davenport] is a great player and I’m happy to beat her.”

Halard-Decugis, ranked 16th, has won two events this year, one on hard court and the other on grass.

One of her big victories in 1999 was against the now-retired Steffi Graf on clay at the German Open.