FILDERSTADT — On 12 October 1998, 22-year-old Lindsay Davenport became world No 1 for the first time in her career, a position she would hold for a total of 98 weeks. The milestone arrived despite a 7-5, 6-3 defeat to Sandrine Testud in the final of the Porsche Open in Filderstadt, and came just weeks after Davenport had claimed her first Grand Slam title at the US Open with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over world No 1 Martina Hingis in the final.
The change at the top was decided in Filderstadt. Defending champion Hingis lost in the quarter-finals to Dominique Monami 6-3, 6-7, 6-4, while Davenport advanced to the final with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Arantxa Sanchez in the semi-final. Although she finished runner-up to Testud 7-5, 6-3, the points were enough for the American to climb to the summit of the WTA rankings at the start of the following week.
Born in 1976 in Palos Verdes, California, Davenport turned pro in 1993 and claimed her first title at the European Open in Switzerland that season, reached the fourth round at the US Open and beat world No 6 Gabriela Sabatini in Philadelphia 6-4, 6-2 to finish the year as world No 20. Sabatini described her game simply: “She likes to hit the ball hard into the corner. Very, very hard.” Davenport entered the top 10 in 1994 and finished runner-up at the WTA Championships, losing to Sabatini 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, before struggling with family issues in 1995 and dropping out of the top 10. She rebuilt her physical conditioning in 1996 to win her biggest title to that point at the Atlanta Olympic Games, beating Arantxa Sanchez 7-6, 6-2 in the final, and in 1997 won six tournaments including Indian Wells before falling to Hingis 6-2, 6-4 in the US Open semi-finals.
1998 was her best season on tour. By the end of August she had claimed four titles, beating Hingis in the finals in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and delivered outstanding Grand Slam results with semi-final runs at the Australian Open, where she lost to Conchita Martinez 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and at Roland-Garros, where she lost to Arantxa Sanchez 6-3, 7-6. In New York she took her career to the next level, beating Hingis 6-3, 7-5 to clinch her first Grand Slam title and move to the brink of No 1. Reflecting in 2020 in an interview for the ITF Youtube Channel, she said: “I never grew up thinking that I could be the best in the world, or one of the most successful players, and it managed to happen.”
Davenport would occupy the world No 1 spot for 98 weeks and add two further Grand Slam singles titles, at Wimbledon in 1999 beating Steffi Graf 6-4, 7-5 and at the Australian Open in 2000 beating Martina Hingis 6-1, 7-5. She then lost the next four major finals she reached, all against the Williams sisters — three times against Venus at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2005 and at the US Open in 2000, and once against Serena at the 2005 Australian Open. Remarkably consistent at the big events, she finished four seasons as world No 1 in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2005. She announced she was pregnant with her first child in December 2006, returned in July 2007 and won her 53rd career singles title in Quebec City later that year, before announcing a second pregnancy in January 2009 which brought the curtain down on her singles career. She later worked as a coach, notably with Madison Keys, and as a TV broadcaster for Tennis Channel, and was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.