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Davenport dumps Williams in final

Lindsay Davenport dumped an injured, out of form Venus Williams in three sets to win the final of the Bank of West tournament, coming out on top in a classy field.

In a match played in soaring, 90+ degree temperatures that forced a 10-minute break before the third set, top-seeded Davenport won 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to take the $79,000 first prize.

The extent of Williams' erratic play was underlined when she served 14 aces -- and eight double faults. A day earlier, she had served 12 aces in a faultless display that accounted for former champion Monica Seles.

Obviously suffering from a strained left leg which necessitated two injury time outs, the dreadlocked star played the last part of the game with her leg wrapped in bandages.

Williams in fact looked good to take the third set and with it, the title, when she shot into a 3-0 lead. Davenport however fought back in the fifth game, then broke again four games later.

Realising where her opponent was vulnerable, Davenport moved Williams around, testing her mobility with sharply angled shots.

The second set saw Williams struggle, alternating between good tennis and bad, looking off balance when her opponent's serves went to her left side as she fought for balance on the injured leg. At the end of the set, the chair umpire called a 10-minute timeout "due to the extreme weather conditions." As per the heat stress index rule applying on the WTA circuit, such timeouts are permitted where the temperatures are above 90 at the start of the game.

However, when play resumed, despite an early surge by the teen star, Davenport held on to her nerve, to take optimum advantage of her opponent's hampered mobility to pull off a fine win.

A day earlier, Williams had blasted 12 aces, including one on the last point of the match, to beat Monica Seles 6-3, 6-4 in the semis.

Davenport, top seeded here, meanwhile beat fourth-seed Steffi Graf 6-4, 6-7 (4-7), 6-3 in an afternoon match.

In a classy display of power serving, Williams mixed aces with winning serves, not allowing Seles, who she was playing for the first time, the remotest chance of breaking her throughout the match.

In the other semifinal, Graf showed continued signs of rust, making a stream of unforced errors especially on her backhand though her serve and forehand seemed as strong as ever.

The third ranked Davenport, playing good mental tennis, did just what she had to, targetting Graf's weak backhand and keeping the ball in play, letting her opponent make the mistakes.

Graf, seeded four despite falling to number 57 in the world since her reconstructive left knee surgery last year, seemed a shadow of the player she was, especially in terms of consistency.

The WTA has given the former world number one a protected ranking of seven till the end of the US Open, allowing her to be seeded till that point on the tour.

For the former champion, the match played over two hours in intense heat was a good index of her fitness. "I haven't played a lot of matches this last year or so, I needed this kind of match to know where I needed to improve," said Graf, who suffered cramps in the final set. "I need to work on my return of serve, also my energy levels. I had nothing left to give, in the third set."