Flashback to 2000 WTA Championships

Laurie’s Tennis Articles will take a look at some of the classic WTA championships in recent times, which culminated in either a memorable final or memorable matches throughout the event.  This week we take a look at the 2000 championships.

In November 2000, the event called the Chase championships would be held at Madison Square Garden in New York for the very last time after a successful period of almost 30 years.  There was controversy over the new venue chosen for 2001 and 2002 in Munich Germany as Monica Seles publicly stated that she would never play in Germany again after the infamous stabbing incident in Hamburg in 1993 and perceived lack of justice in the German courts where her attacker was not given a prison sentence.

The tournament set up was vastly different back in 2000.  The top 16 in the world qualified for the year end tournament which was pure knock out from first round to the final.  With the format change since, this seems a bit harsh now because players could travel half way around the world just to play one match!  Players who withdrew from the tournament included Venus and Serena Williams, plus Amelie Mauresmo who were all injured.

There were some great matches as the tournament progressed and they mostly revolved around Elena Dementieva.  As Eurosport commentator Simon Reed noted, Dementieva posed a striking resemblance to Steffi Graf in terms of looks and speed around the court.  In the first round against Davenport, Lindsay found it all a bit too much, having claimed he first set and looking good for the win, but even at the age of eighteen Dementieva was already building a reputation for being a slow starter but getting better as the as the match went on.  And on the fast supreme court her speed around the court was in turn highlighting Davenport’s lack of relative mobility, which made Davenport frustrated.  Dementieva came through the match in three sets to put defending champion out of the tournament in the very first round. Davenport looking quite distraught in the end, no doubt annoyed to lose to such an inexperienced player.

Dementieva’s next great match came against Kim Clisjters in the quarterfinal.  Both players were seen as the future of the game and were the same age.  Clijsters would go on to dominate the rivalry but in their first encounter in New York, Dementieva would take the match again in three sets, coming from 4:2 down in the 3rd set to take it 6:4 2:6 6:4.  A strange call in the final game left Clisjters looking quite forlorn and frustrated.  What is interesting about this match fourteen years on is not only was it a great match between two extremely athletic and quick players, but it was also a contest between two teenagers at the top level, an absolute rarity in today’s tennis.

Meanwhile world number 1 Martina Hingis breezed through the tournament taking out Julie Halard in the first round, who went on to retire from tennis and  Nathalize Tauziat in the quarterfinal, who also went on to retire from tennis!.  Kournikova and Seles also arrived in the semifinals after easy wins; Kournikova taking out Conchita Martinez in the quarterfinal 6:4 6:0.  Therefore, the semifinal line up was Hingis against Kournikova and Seles against Dementieva; three of the four semifinalists were teenagers and Seles a former teenage prodigy.  Both Hingis and Seles won their semifinal matches comfortably although Seles was taken to a 2nd set tiebreak after Dementieva found her feet as Seles’ fast start stated to subside, but was able to finish it in straight sets.

The final between Seles and Hingis turned out to be one of the matches of the year with Seles pushing Hingis hard and it looked for a good period that Seles would cause an upset and walk away Masters champion.  As in the semifinal, Seles really took her game to the opponent, going for big serves and quick winners overwhelming Hingis who was flustered by the constant attack.  Seles’ plan was a combination of tactical and fitness; having missed a lot of the year through injury Seles wanted to finish the match quickly.

The tactic almost paid off as it looked like Seles would win the match in straight sets after being a break up twice in the 2nd set.  However, comparisons are often made between tennis and boxing and last week was the 40th anniversary of the “Rumble in the Jungle” between Mohammed Ali and George Foreman.  The scenario here was similar as Foreman exhausted himself trying to take out Ali and was knocked out in the eleventh round.  A similar fate befell Seles who had Hingis on the rack for an hour but was unable to finish the job and was taken to three sets where she lost it after visibly tiring.  In fact, both were tiring but Hingis’ counter punching skills and tenacity got her through to take the match 6:7 6:4 6:4.

Hingis was very emotional at the end the encounter knowing she had to work extremely hard for the victory and validated her number 1 position.  Hingis had come in for a lot of criticism for finishing the year as number 1 without winning a major title.  The tour was set up quite differently in 2000 and under today’s conditions, Venus’ run of Wimbledon, US and Olympic titles may well have seen her claim the number 1 position. 

2000 was the first year of the new millennium and set up what would be a golden period for WTA tennis with the emergence of Venus and Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amelie Mauresmo, Elena Dementieva and the re-emergence of Jennifer Capriati who was only a few years older at the age of 24 even though she had played in the 1991 US Open semifinal!  Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis were the established top two players in the world but Davenport would continue with her career in the top 10 while Hingis would retire in 2002 after citing a chronic foot condition.