Venus Is a Roll Model in Easy Victory

Venus Williams is headed to the U.S. Open on a roll.

The two-time defending Open champion beat Lindsay Davenport, 7-5, 6-0, Saturday at New Haven, Conn., to win her fourth consecutive Pilot Pen title. She is the first woman to win the same tournament four years in a row since Monica Seles did it in the Canadian Open from 1995-98.

Williams has won 13 straight matches heading into the year’s final Grand Slam event, which begins Monday.

“Technically I feel pretty sound,” said Williams, who has beaten Davenport for the Pilot Pen title three of the last four years. “I know in the big matches in the Open, the best players have to be able to come through technically.

“When my techniques start to break, that’s when I start to lose it.”

She hasn’t lost much this year, improving to 51-6 with the win over Davenport, who was playing in her fourth tournament since returning last month from knee surgery. Davenport has made it to two semifinals and two finals in her comeback.

Davenport started out crisply. She broke the top-seeded Williams in the first game with strong returns and passing shots.

Up a break in the first set and leading, 5-3, Davenport began to unravel with several unforced errors and went winless the rest of the way, losing 10 straight games.

“Against a lot of players you can have your kind of lapse and it’s not that big a deal,” Davenport said. “Against her, she then takes advantage of it. She’s able to play better at the bigger moments.”

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Juan Ignacio Chela and Paradorn Srichaphan advanced to the final of the of TD Waterhouse tournament at Commack, N.Y.

Chela defeated Alex Corretja 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, and Srichaphan advanced on a walkover when Tommy Haas was unable to play because of injury.

The victory was Chela’s third in a row over Corretja on hard courts this year.