Everything Goes Right for an ‘Awesome’ Davenport

NEW YORK — Lindsay Davenport came up with a winning game and the word for it: awesome.

“Just an awesome way to end the year,” Davenport said Sunday after beating top-ranked Martina Hingis, 6-4, 6-2, to win the season-ending Chase Championships.

And it was.

Taking charge from the outset, Davenport overpowered Hingis to reverse the outcome of last year’s title match at Madison Square Garden between the two.

“I went for it today, something I don’t think I did last year,” Davenport said. “So when I woke up today I just wanted to go for my shots, go for my winners and be the one who was dictating, and was able to do it all. Fortunately, it was a day where more of them went in than went out.”

Sixty-one minutes after she had started, Davenport had earned the Billie Jean King Trophy and $500,000.

The final game was a perfect example.

Serving for the match, Davenport began with a wide ace. Then Hingis badly misplayed the next serve. Davenport ended it with her eighth and ninth aces.

The victory elevated Davenport into the exalted company of other champions here. A blue banner with the names of all the winners, including Davenport, was raised to the rafters of the arena during postmatch ceremony.

“I think I’m very lucky for accomplishing everything I did,” she said. “I never thought I’d be at this point in my career to have won a major, let alone any titles.”

Last year, she began the Chase Championships ranked No. 1 in the world. Hingis has regained that honor, but this year Davenport won just as many tournaments--seven--and took Wimbledon and the Chase Championships.

Hingis did wind up the year a winner. She teamed with Russia’s Anna Kournikova to win the doubles title, defeating Larisa Neiland of Latvia and Spain’s Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, 6-4, 6-4.

Before the doubles final, there was a ceremony honoring Jana Novotna, who has retired after a career that saw her win the Championships in 1997 and Wimbledon in 1998. Neiland, a doubles specialist, also played her final match on the WTA Tour.