Venus Still Visible at Open

By JERRY CROWE

Sept. 9, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

NEW YORK —

Venus Williams’ predicament seemed so dire Friday that her father could no longer bear to watch.

Richard Williams, his dreams of an all-Williams U.S. Open women’s final between Venus and younger sister Serena having already been dashed earlier in the week, was looking at the very real prospect of a no-Williams final.

Venus, seeded third, had just dumped an ill-timed drop shot into the net, leaving top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland only three points from an unexpected semifinal victory.

Richard had seen enough.

He bolted up out of his courtside seat, walked briskly up the stairs through a tunnel and out of Arthur Ashe Stadium and kept right on going, hurriedly exiting the grounds of the National Tennis Center, cursing a reporter as he left.

By the time he reached the parking lot, Venus was two points from losing but had no plans to leave.

She rallied to win the game, the beginning of a match-ending four-game roll that carried her to a 4-6, 6-3, 7-5 victory and into today’s final against second-seeded Lindsay Davenport, who earlier defeated unseeded Elena Dementieva of Russia, 6-2, 7-6 (5).

It’s the first all-American U.S. Open women’s final since 1984, when Martina Navratilova defeated Chris Evert, and the first matching U.S.-born players since 1979, when Tracy Austin defeated Evert.

Williams will carry a 25-match winning streak into the championship match, a replay of the Wimbledon final won by Williams, 6-3, 7-6 (3), two months ago.

But she was on the ropes against Hingis, who led in the third set, 5-3, when Richard walked out with the score tied, 15-15, in the ninth game.

Then, with Williams serving at 15-30 on a gorgeous late-summer day, a tiring Hingis failed to put away an overhead volley that would have given her match point and Williams ended a long rally by ripping a backhand winner down the line.

Including that one, Williams won 13 of 14 points, serving out the ninth game, breaking Hingis’ serve to pull even at 5-5, holding serve at love to go up, 6-5, and opening a love-30 lead against Hingis’ serve in the last game.

Hingis survived one match point when Williams netted a forehand return, but she netted a forehand on the next and walked off quietly as Williams blew kisses and bowed to the crowd while mouthing over and over, “Unbelievable.”

“I just kept slugging, fighting away,” said Williams, who has won four consecutive tournaments and has not lost since June 6, when Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain defeated her in the quarterfinals at the French Open. “I’ve got a pretty big heart these days.

“I really didn’t want to lose. I felt I should have an opportunity. This is my opportunity, I should take it, even though it was 5-3. It was only one break. . . . I felt like, ‘This is my opportunity, I deserve to be in the finals, and I just need to go ahead and get it done.’ ”

Hingis, meanwhile, rued her failure to seize the moment.

“I definitely should have made that 5-3 game to finish the match, and I didn’t do it,” she said. “After that, I felt like even though I was serving for the match, it was just very critical because she started playing better again. . . .

“I hoped for her not to come out that way. That was maybe my hope toward the end of the match, that she would still miss some returns or she’d give me a chance to kind of survive and finish it off.”

Of the squandered opportunity on the crucial point that would have put her within one point of victory, Hingis said, “That was a long rally, after . . . running back and forth the whole point, then you’ve got an overhead.

“It’s just not easy. It looks so easy, but then you miss it because you lose the balance.”

Hingis will lose her No. 1 ranking today if Davenport, ranked second, defeats Williams.

Davenport, who is 9-5 against Williams but has lost four of the last five meetings, survived a shaky ending to her victory over Dementieva, who was playing in her first Grand Slam semifinal.

She was serving for the match at 5-2 in the second set, poised to close it out in less than an hour, before Dementieva unexpectedly broke her serve and extended the match 25 more minutes.

Up to that point, Dementieva had not even gotten to deuce against Davenport’s serve, losing three games at love.

What happened?

“She started swinging from the hip a little more and taking chances,” said Davenport, who defeated fifth-seeded Serena Williams in the quarterfinals. “You know, that’s what happens. If someone’s losing, they’re probably going to start going for it a little bit more. She started making some.

“I don’t think I was quite as aggressive as I was the first set and a half, thinking she was going to start making a few errors, and she really didn’t.”

On match point, Davenport floated a lob over Dementieva’s head that landed on the baseline. Dementieva caught up to it, but hit a forehand wide to end the match.

“I’m just upset about the last ball,” she said. “I thought it’s going to be out, but it was good.”

Though it was her return game that got her in trouble, Dementieva said it’s her serve that needs the most improvement.

“I need to work on my serve,” she said, “because my second serve was like I think my grandmother can do it better.”

How old is she?

“I don’t tell you.”

Later, Venus Williams was asked about her father’s hasty departure. Was it disconcerting to see him get up and walk out?

“No, because I don’t rely on my parents,” she said. “Usually, I have it all figured out, what I’m going to do. Sure, sometimes if you’re playing bad, they’ll say, ‘Come on, let’s go, get it done, you can do it.’ Things like that. That’s OK.

“But as far as strategy, I’ve got it all figured out.”

Her play at the end should have convinced us all of that.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

U.S. OPEN

WOMEN’S FINAL

Lindsay Davenport (2)

vs. Venus Williams (3)

MEN’S SEMIFINALS

Todd Martin

vs. Marat Safin (6)

Pete Sampras (4)

vs. Lleyton Hewitt (9)