Dementieva upsets, Davenport in final

By Chris Davies
April 29 2003

10th seed Elena Dementieva upset number 1 seed Justine Henin-Hardenne to book her place in her first final of the year against Lindsay Davenport on the green clay at Bausch and Lomb Championships, Amelia Island

Henin-Hardenne who downed world number 1 Serena Williams last week reached the final of the Bausch and Lomb Championships last year losing to Venus Williams seemed to be unstoppable this week but the 10th seed beat her in impressive fashion.

The Belgian took control early on after trading breaks winning the first set 6-3 and looked likely on the road to her second straight final but it Dementieva had other plans.

Henin found herself 4-1 down in the second but got back to 5-4 down before Dementieva sealed the set executing Henin's comeback.

The players traded breaks in the first two games of the final set and Henin-Hardenne had break points for 2-2 but couldn't take them and fell 3-1 down then 4-1 drawing which looked like the end of the match as the Belgian came back to 4-2, then 4-3 and then 4-4 and now 5-4. Could the unthinkable happen and Justine win?

Unbelievably Justine Henin-Hardenne didn't convert the match point she had at 5-4 taking it to 5-5 but the Russian took the lead again at 6-5 then won the match on her first match point.

Lindsay Davenport stormed through her semi-final match with Jennifer Capriati breaking at 3-3 which was a long deuce game which was the crucial game of the first set as the second seed took it 6-3.

Jennifer upped her game and cruised to a 3-1 lead after another long game on Capriati's service game after Davenport had chances of levelling the score.Capriati had two chances to win the set which included a set point at 5-4 on Davenport's serve and then a chance a 6-5 and took them in her own serve for a 7-5 second set.

Davenport gained the upper hand in the final set breaking for a 4-2 lead then 5-2 making the former Australian Open and French Open champion serve out to stay in the match. But Lindsay played far too well and eliminated any comeback of any sort storming to a 6-2 third set victory. She will now face Elena Dementieva

Semi-Final Results

(10) E DEMENTIEVA (RUS) bt (1) J HENIN-HARDENNE
6-3, 4-6, 7-5

(2) L DAVENPORT (USA) BT (3) J CAPRIATI (USA)
6-3, 5-7, 6-2

Final
(2) L DAVENPORT (USA) v (10) E DEMENTIEVA (RUS)