Now It’s Serena’s Turn to Take Title

Might as well rename the WTA the Williams Tennis Assn. after Serena Williams defeated the top two players in the world on consecutive days and declared she hasn’t reached her peak.

“I’m just warming up basically, not even close to my best,” Williams said Sunday after rallying to defeat Lindsay Davenport, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1), before a sellout crowd of 5,324, in the final of the estyle.com Classic at Manhattan Country Club in Manhattan Beach.

Although Williams said she wasn’t the “same spunky person you usually see,” she found a way to prevail over Davenport for the fifth time in six tries, and she extended the family winning streak to four tournaments, starting with the Wimbledon title her older sister Venus earned.

“They’re very athletic and hit the ball hard and serve pretty well,” Davenport said of Venus and Serena, who are ranked third and seventh in the world, respectively. “For hard hitters, they are very athletic and move well.”

Davenport, citing an erratic serve that produced 13 double faults, thought she may have lost the match more than Williams won it.

Williams believed the difference was her ability to persevere despite a lack of focus, which contributed to her committing too many errors.

“I was winning easily [earlier], but I wasn’t playing great,” said Williams, who recorded straight-set victories in her first two matches before needing three sets to upset top-seeded Martina Hingis in the semifinals. “[But] when I played the top players you could see that I wasn’t playing that great. . . . I couldn’t get my feet to move throughout the whole match.”

That may have been true in the first set, when she squandered a chance to go up 4-2 with a double fault and later was broken in the ninth game.

Williams started the second set slowly, before breaking Davenport to get even at 3-3. After the two exchanged service breaks, Williams finally held to go up 5-4, then broke Davenport again to win the set.

“I can’t remember a match where I had so many chances, and it didn’t go my way,” Davenport said. “So many times I was up and it seemed like my serve left me.”

One crucial example came in the 12th game of the third set after she had broken Williams to go up 6-5. Serving for the match, she double-faulted and was broken at love.

Davenport and Williams matched power for power from the baseline for much of the 2-hour 29-minute match, but particularly in the latter stages Williams varied her game by coming to the net.

It was just enough to catch Davenport off guard.

“At the end, I switched things rather than doing the same old thing,” Williams said. “That helped me a lot. If Plan A isn’t working, I have Plan B, Plan C and even Plan D.”

She didn’t miss a step in the tiebreaker either.

“Whenever I go to a tiebreaker I feel like I’m going to win,” said Williams, who won the last six points of the tiebreaker and 11 of 12 to close the match.

The victory cranks up Williams’ momentum for next week when she will play at Montreal in a tuneup for the U.S. Open, where she is the defending champion.

After winning at Manhattan Beach a year ago, she boldly predicted she would triumph at Flushing Meadows.

This year, the purple-clad Williams has statistics to make a case for herself again, in light of a combined record of 9-4 against No. 1 Hingis and No. 2 Davenport. But she’s only 1-4 against her sister, including a loss in the semifinals at Wimbledon this year.

Davenport, who has lost three of four matches to the Williams sisters this summer, found it difficult to say which sister figures to be more of a threat at the Open.

“Venus at this point is playing a little bit better,” Davenport said. “At Stanford [last month] she played unbelievable.”

But Serena Williams can’t be counted out.

“You know my prediction, I don’t need to say it,” Serena Williams said smiling. “Everyone knows who I pick to win the Open--the lady in purple.”

WOMEN’S TENNIS

FIRST FAMILY

A look at recent conquests by the Williams sisters:

JULY 8

Venus wins Wimbledon singles title, teams with Serena to win doubles July 10.

JULY 30

Venus wins at Palo Alto.

AUG. 6

Venus wins at Carlsbad.

SUNDAY

Serena wins at Manhattan Beach.

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STILL GAME

Davenport encouraged despite loss. Page 5