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With the US Open arriving in two weeks, it seems that these leadup tournaments are absolutely vital preparation to get into top gear for the final major of the year. And it's been a very interesting two weeks - no doubt the next fortnight will be just as scintillating as we all try to predict a winner for this major. So who is everyone tipping right now? In my previous article, I mentioned Venus Williams, Martina Hingis and Monica Seles as hot favourites for the title. But over the past fortnight, it's become clear to me that Lindsay Davenport should also be in this category, and if lead-up tournaments are anything to judge a Grand Slam winner by, then Lindsay would be the punter's favourite by far.
No doubt the US hardcourt season is the hardest of all on the tennis circuit. It is mighty gruelling! Hardcourt surfaces tend to absorb the atmospheric heat and magnify its intensity, making it painful on the body, especially the feet, and hard on physical conditioning. And it's why a lot of players tend to get injured during the hardcourt season. Venus Williams, for example, looked set to take her quarter final encounter against Mary Pierce, easily taking the first set 6-2 and managing a tiebreak in the second. However, the match completely turned around when Venus marginally lost the tiebreak and was taken to a third set. Venus completely collapsed, losing four straight games before retiring with tendonitis in the left knee. How will this hamper her preparation for the Open, you say?! Well, it may prevent her from taking part in the next few tournaments but essentially, it shouldn't prevent her from getting past the earlier rounds with ease. It's just a question of whether the knee can hold itself together for two gruelling weeks, but we'll see what happens. She has a lot of points to defend from reaching the final last year, so if her knee causes her serious problems, we may see her out of the Top 5 for a little while. Monica Seles was another one who didn't escape the wrath of injury. She was a little below-par in the tournament at Stanford which was understandable given the rigour of travelling from Europe to the US and playing quite a lot more tennis than she is used to. But it was back spasms which seemed to cause Monica the greatest harm in the Toshiba Tennis Classic. Of course, being the talent that she is, she was able to overcome various ailments to make a semi-final appearance before a lack of physical conditioning saw her lose a tight three setter against Lindsay Davenport.
The copyright of the article Lindsay Davenport in clear contention for the Open in Women's Tennis is owned by . Permission to republish Lindsay Davenport in clear contention for the Open in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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