The Loser Talks More Like a Winner

Lindsay Davenport’s confidence is stronger than it was a week ago. So is her game.

Imagine how she might have felt if she had won the estyle.com Classic final Sunday at the Manhattan Country Club.

An uncharacteristic 13 double faults and a suspect second serve sabotaged Davenport’s efforts against a resilient and resourceful Serena Williams. Yet, the $43,500 runner-up check isn’t all that Davenport, ranked second in the world, gained after Williams rallied for a 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (1) victory under the searing summer sun.

“I finally felt like I got my game a lot better, and I can take that out of this week,” said Davenport, who was broken three times in the second set and three times in the third, the last time at love after she had taken a 6-5 lead.

“I thought I played well today except for a few points and a few serves. I thought Thursday [a three-set victory over Anne-Gaelle Sidot in the second round] was one of the worst matches I’ve played in my career.”

Davenport, Australian Open champion during a 21-match winning streak earlier this year, had been in a mild funk. Injuries plagued her during the late spring and she lost in the first round of the French Open, her first first-round exit in a Grand Slam tournament in seven years. She reached the final at Wimbledon with relative ease but lost in straight sets to Venus Williams. She also lost a second-round match to Anna Kournikova last week in San Diego.

However, Davenport was buoyed by her victories in the previous two rounds here, over Sandrine Testud and Elena Dementieva, and she seemed to be on the same track Sunday. She played a solid first set, fighting off two break points in the sixth game and breaking Williams in the ninth game before winning the set on her first opportunity. “I’m happy with the way I played. My ground strokes went really well,” Davenport said. “But leaving a match you should have won is really a hard thing to do.”

Although her serve was erratic, Davenport had chances to pull away in the second set before Williams found her rhythm. Davenport was up a break and leading, 3-2, but Williams fought off two game points before breaking back when Davenport double-faulted.

Davenport broke back in the seventh game, but Williams responded by breaking her in the eighth game. “I was up, 4-3, with a couple of points to go up, 5-3,” Davenport said, shaking her head. “I really thought in that 4-3 game I had a couple of chances to win.”

Instead, Williams broke her, held serve to go up, 5-4, and broke Davenport again to win the set after Davenport double-faulted and hit a shot wide from the baseline.

“It seemed like whenever I got up, I couldn’t serve as well,” Davenport said. “I got stuck hitting too many second serves. I was bad serving at certain times.”

Successive breaks in the fourth, fifth and sixth games of the third set left them tied, at 3-3. Each held serve in the next four games, but Davenport broke Williams for a 6-5 lead when Williams made two of her 36 unforced errors. But Williams broke back to force the tiebreaker. “I said, ‘I have to break, or that’s it. It’s gone,’ ” Williams said. “And I didn’t want that.”

Davenport won only one more point, a cross-court forehand to even the tiebreaker at 1-1. “I just didn’t end the match well,” Davenport said. “I went for a few shots and missed them. I’d love to take a couple of points back.”

Nonetheless, Davenport had reasons to be happy. “Physically, I feel great,” she said. “It was a long match and I didn’t pull anything.”