WTA Championships Preview: Davenport, Mauresmo Battle for No. 1

Posted on November 9, 2004

World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport and No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo headline this week's WTA Championships, beginning Wednesday in L.A., with the year-end No. 1 ranking on the line.

But what remains to be seen this week at the STAPLES Center is if anybody cares.

In January of this year any fan would have been hard-pressed to pick Davenport, who was a question mark to even finish the year before retiring, or the oft-choking Mauresmo to finish No. 1 ahead of ranking-toppers Justine Henin-Hardenne, Kim Clijsters, or Serena and Venus Williams.

Then one by one the opposition fell: Henin-Hardenne (mystery virus), Clijsters (wrist), Venus (abdominal injury) and Serena (knee surgery) all sustained injury or illness that kept them out of action for much of the year, and out of the race for No. 1. By default, Mauresmo assumed the top mantle in September, then Davenport took the top ranking back shortly thereafter.

In the face of statistics, most will concede that the year far and away would have belonged to the diminutive Belgian Henin-Hardenne, who won four of her first six events (including the Australian Open and Indian Wells) before being forced off the circuit by illness. She would come back for three more events, losing early at the French, winning the Olympics, then losing at the US Open before announcing she could no longer compete.

The results at her nine events alone were enough to qualify for the year-end championships, which she has passed on to fully recover for the 2005 season.

To set up a "blockbuster final" in L.A. (which still might not determine the No. 1 ranking, the WTA is not sure), Davenport and Mauresmo will first have to navigate their respective round robin groups. The top seed in the Red Group, Davenport is pitted against Russians Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva, and countrywoman Serena. The Russians will have a hard road, both with losing records against the rest of the group as a whole. Serena holds a 9-3 career advantage over Davenport, losing in their last meeting. Serena is 3-0 against both Russians, but is a question mark with a late-season illness coupled with her ongoing knee problem.

Myskina and Dementieva both lost in round robin play last year at the WTA Championships.

The statistics support Mauresmo in the Black Group, with a 5-0 record against Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva, 3-0 versus Svetlana Kuznetsova, and never having faced the cell phone/office products mannequin Maria Sharapova, who could use a win to justify her shaky top-player standing.

Mauresmo comes in with an abundance of confidence after the Philly title last week.

"It would be the cherry on the cake," Mauresmo told Reuters on finishing No. 1. "I want to enjoy it and be there on the last day. I put this tournament just behind the grand slams in importance."

Sharapova is 1-4 against her group mates, while Zvonareva is 4-10, and Kuznetsova 6-5. Mauresmo and Kuznetsova are the favorites, but strange things are bound to happen with three Russians in the same group. As in strange choking things. Between the awe-inspiring big-occasion choking of Mauresmo and the jittery Russians, call this the Choke Group.

In last year's WTA Championship final, Mauresmo had to have her hands pried away from her throat in a 6-2, 6-0 loss to Clijsters.

This year Mauresmo had the satisfaction of personally knocking Venus out of qualification last week in Philadelphia, while Jennifer Capriati took care of herself with a throat-clutching 6-0, 6-1 loss to Zvonareva.

It is unknown whether the WTA will allow Zvonareva to use her mutant power of bursting into tears at any moment during a match, regardless of whether she is winning or losing, to unnerve her group opponents.

Former champions in this year's field are Davenport (1999) and Serena (2001).

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