Davenport Reaches Final

Already, the trainer had visited one player during the first semifinal at the Acura Classic. Then the other player started walking gingerly and many eyes turned to the chair umpire, wondering if another call for assistance was in the offing.

Cue up the theme: The last player standing at the La Costa Resort and Spa.

But somehow Lindsay Davenport, who jammed her right knee in the second to last game, survived the daily dose of distress haunting this tournament. The fourth-seeded Davenport defeated No. 5 Elena Dementieva, 6-2, 6-4, on Saturday in a semifinal.

Davenport, on a two-tournament, 13-match winning streak, said she had the knee examined afterward and thought she’d be able to play in today’s final.

There, she will face the last Russian standing, No. 3 Anastasia Myskina. Myskina survived nine match points, eight of them in the third-set tiebreaker in the night semifinal, beating her countrywoman, No. 12 Vera Zvonareva, 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-6 (15), in 2 hours 28 minutes before an excited crowd of 6,386.

“It’s not going to be easy,” Myskina said of quick turnaround for the final. “Because I’m still playing tennis in my head.”

It’s practically an understatement to say the French Open champion is resilient after the riveting semifinal.

Myskina saved a set point in the first set against Maria Sharapova of Russia in the quarterfinals on Friday night and won in straight sets. That was like a brief jog compared with Saturday’s marathon of tension and test of wills.

Myskina needed five match points to put away Zvonareva, winning when the 19-year-old hit a backhand long. She reached match point on a net-cord winner when her backhand volley trickled over. If Sharapova was driven to tears after the loss, how would the emotional Zvonareva react after holding nine match points?

“It’s the first-ever tiebreaker [like this], and hopefully the last one, that long one, 17-15, the longest one in my life,” Myskina said, smiling.

Said Zvonareva, who was trying to maintain composure: “I was playing my best but sometimes it doesn’t work. I had lucky shots and she had lucky shots. It was up and down for both of us. But it was a great match.”

So was Myskina good, lucky or both? She had trailed, 2-5, in the third set, staging a marvelous comeback to even reach the third-set tiebreaker. “Definitely a little bit of luck,” she said.

The drama was of a vastly different nature in the first semifinal. It featured a handful of questionable calls, overrules and verbal appeals by Dementieva and Davenport.

Their discontent brought the afternoon crowd of 6,312 into it, and some of the loudest cheers during the match came when the crew of line officials was rotated.

“Today was too much, obviously,” Dementieva said. “I talked to my mom. She was watching on Eurosport.... What can you do about it? Sometimes it happens.”

Dementieva needed attention from the trainer in the second set and had her right knee wrapped. Davenport’s injury scare came when she was leading, 5-3; she jammed her knee when she got caught off balance.

She had the knee tested afterward and said the kneecap was jammed. The good news, for her, was that it appeared unrelated to her other knee problems.

Now, Davenport, having won at Palo Alto and Carson, is one match away from repeating her summer hard-court run of 1998, in which she won all three California tournaments before winning her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open.

“It’s great,” Davenport said. “I’m sure a lot of people didn’t expect me to be a dominant force again in women’s tennis and it’s nice that I feel like I’m back up there and continuing to still build on my game at 28.”

She had doubts as well.

“I even thought, ‘OK, maybe I’m a perennial quarterfinalist now,’ ” Davenport said. “I don’t know. It definitely crept into my mind and I’m glad that even in my own mind I’ve been able to break through and start winning tournaments and be a factor in the latter rounds....

“The last two years haven’t come as easy as some previous years. Just coming back from a lot of injuries and losing confidence along the way and losing to some players along the way.”

How does 2004 compare with 1998?

“Six years is definitely a long time,” Davenport said. “Not that this run, this is a little surprising to me. I always just remember laughing and giggling almost, ‘I can’t believe this.’ But I feel like now I’m a better athlete than I was in ‘98, I’m a much better player.”

*

Acura Classic Final

Today’s championship match at the Acura Classic in Carlsbad:

* Players: Lindsay Davenport vs. Anastasia Myskina, Russia

* TV: ESPN, noon