As we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the US Open, we look back at the 50 champions who have left an indelible mark on this inimitable event.
Lindsay Davenport was the best ball-striker of her era, a woman who commanded points by routinely positioning hard, flat ground strokes into the corners with a metronomic consistency. It was pure power tennis, and in the mid- to late-1990s, no one performed it better. It was commentator Mary Carillo who coined the term “Big Babe Tennis,” and the 6-foot-2 Davenport was her archetype.
Davenport was, also, a champion, and quietly, one of the Open era’s finest. She finished in the Top 10 of the year-end rankings all but twice between 1994 and 2005 and completed the 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2005 seasons as the world’s top-ranked woman – an accomplishment topped only by Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Martina Navratilova and Serena Williams. For good measure, the Californian placed at No. 2 in 1999 and 2000.
In all, she won 55 career tour singles titles, three Grand Slam singles titles and three doubles majors, as well – one each at her home Slam, and none more memorable than her maiden Grand Slam singles title in 1998.
In 1997, on her seventh trip to New York, Davenport upset No. 3 seed Jana Novotna to reach the semifinals, where she fell to eventual champion Martina Hingis. A year later, she was the No. 2 seed, the pre-tournament favorite who was coming off semifinal performances at the Australian Open and French Open, a quarterfinal showing at Wimbledon and three titles in the summer hard-court circuit leading up to Flushing Meadows.
Davenport lived up to her advance billing from the first ball. She surrendered just seven games in her first three matches before rolling past No. 10 Nathalie Tauziat, 6-1, 6-4, in the fourth round and No. 13 Amanda Coetzer, 6-0, 6-4, in the quarterfinals. That set up a pair of highly anticipated tilts: a 6-4, 6-4 victory over rising star and fellow American Venus Williams in the semifinals and a rematch with Hingis in the final. This time, Davenport solved Hingis’ craft and guile with brute force, dismissing the Swiss, 6-3, 7-5.
With her spotless 1998 run, Davenport went from promising player to Grand Slam champion, the second chapter in a long run of success in the Big Apple. She reached the quarterfinals or better for 10 consecutive years, 1997-2006, but as she openly admits, there was no feeling quite like lifting that first major trophy – and a US Open title at that.
In the on-court ceremony, a delighted Davenport said, “It was the one I wanted the most” – and it was and is a most fitting crown for a most deserving champion.
50 Fact: Davenport’s 1998 US Open title snapped a 12-year drought for U.S. women at the Open, the longest in tournament history, dating back to Martina Navratilova in 1987. With the win, she also became the first American-born US Open women’s singles champion since Chris Evert in 1982.
