Venus Still Visible at Open

Maybe the women’s tour has too many story lines for its own good. Maybe all of the plots, subplots and plotting keep distracting us from the fact that Venus Williams vs. Martina Hingis is one of the best things going in sports.

Unfortunately, all of the attention going into their U.S. Open semifinal match was on this supposed “alliance” between Hingis and Lindsay Davenport and their pact to do all they could to prevent the Williams sisters from reaching the final.

As Venus said, “These days, it’s like WWF wrestling.”

The only thing different is the competition itself: Women’s tennis is unscripted, unpredictable and unforgettable.

Williams and Hingis hooked up for another classic at Arthur Ashe Stadium, with Williams coming back from 5-3 down in the third set to prevail, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

Put this one on the shelf right next to Williams’ 6-3, 4-6, 6-4 victory over Hingis in the Wimbledon quarterfinals and you have a good start on a collection of the best sporting events of the year. (Don’t forget to add the Super Bowl, Lakers-Portland Game 7, Shane Mosley-Oscar De La Hoya.)

Hingis makes so few mistakes that the only way to beat her is to put the ball past her. Williams is one of the few who can do that on a regular basis.

Hingis is one of the few players who can track down Williams’ booming shots and put them back in play, as if to say, “That was pretty good, but whatcha got now?”

Williams might be the only one who can answer back, “How about this?” The closeness is demonstrated by the head-to-head results, which Hingis leads, 9-7.

“She plays a very good game and I do too,” Hingis said. “It’s very simple in a way, that she has maybe more power, but I have more . . . trying to read her game and still be there, the quickness and everything.”

So they put their different styles to the test, the drama building with each long rally and every game as the match stretched out to nearly two hours.

It seemed as though every ball that was close to the line was called in, as if all the judges decided to just let ‘em play. Or perhaps they were as wrapped up in the action as the rest of us.

How many more winners could Venus produce? (An astounding 51, it turned out.)

How much longer could Hingis keep up that unflappable resolve?

The answer came when Hingis was three points from winning the match.

She couldn’t get a deep shot from Williams back over the net. Then she uncharacteristically botched an easy forehand in the middle of the court, hitting that one into the net as well. And when Williams came back with a backhand winner, she had the break she needed and closed out the match in the next two games.

Williams reacted as if she wasn’t quite sure what to do. After shaking hands with Hingis, she went to the other side of the court, stopped, waved to the crowd, bowed, turned around, started to walk toward her family in the stands, spun around, paused, then headed toward her chair.

“Unbelievable,” was the word she kept mouthing.

“Just the fact that I really was not playing well today and I was down, 5-3,” Williams said. “It really seemed like all of a sudden the match was over. That was pretty unbelievable.”

You almost didn’t want the match to end. The way some points went on, at times it seemed as if it wouldn’t.

Williams would bang shots down the line and Hingis retrieved them. Williams came in to get the chip shots, ran back to chase the lobs, and got them back. She even won one point after she slipped, got back up to return the ball, hung in the rally and hit a running winner.

This match was another argument in favor of equal pay for women. Some say that because the men play best-of-five matches and the women play best-of-three contests, the women are demanding the same amount of money for less work. That overlooks the fact that so many men’s points are decided on just a serve. Or, at most, a serve, return and winner. And, of course, the women produce higher ratings thanks to their depth of talent, and all of those intriguing rivalries.

Lately, it seems as if it has been the Williams sisters vs. all comers. Davenport spiced it up by saying that she and Hingis have a running gag that they have to do their part to prevent an all-Williams final.

Though there’s no love lost between the Hingis-Davenport alliance and the Williamses, it’s probably more of a competitive tactic and less of a conspiracy.

The delicious underlying story to this is the tacit admission that Hingis likes her chances against Davenport (and vice versa) better than against either Venus or Serena Williams--especially if she had to play the Williamses back to back.

“Everyone these days is out for themselves, no matter what it is,” Venus Williams said. “So as far as alliance, I’m not even involved.”

There is a natural family bond that Venus feels for her sister, so much so that she said she wished she could have demonstrated to Serena the importance of playing your best at all times by losing to Davenport herself, instead of Serena learning the hard way by falling to Davenport in the quarterfinals.

As for Hingis and Davenport, it appears they have gone their separate ways.

“I don’t care [who wins] anymore,” Hingis said. “I’m out. It’s always kind of nicer [when] the person who beats you comes out as a winner.”

In other words, go Venus.

The Hingis-Davenport alliance is dead.

But long live the Hingis-Williams rivalry.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at his e-mail address j.a.adande@latimes.com.