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Clijsters Beats Davenport to Win Pacific
Clijsters, who withdrew during last year's tournament with a wrist injury and missed most of the year, defeated Davenport 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Clijsters, now ranked 133rd after missing most of last year because of the wrist injury, could hardly believe it. "This is incredible. I was just sitting there, looking at my mom and my coach in my box saying, 'You know, this is true.' I was looking up at the scoreboard," she said. "It's an incredible feeling after the tough year last year to be able to have this now, and so soon." She had two operations on her left wrist after hurting it at Indian Wells. This year's tournament is only her fourth since the injury. In a men's semifinal, defending champion Roger Federer continued his dominating run with a 6-3, 6-1 win over Guillermo Canas. He will play the winner of the semifinal between Andy Roddick and Lleyton Hewitt. Federer, clearly playing up to his No. 1 ranking, had seven aces and 12 forehand winners against his Argentine opponent, ranked No. 14. The 23-year-old Swiss star has a 41-1 match record over nine tournaments since the start of last year's U.S. Open, which he won. His only loss since then was to Marat Safin in this year's Australian Open. The women's final was a rematch of the 2003 championship showdown at Indian Wells, when Clijsters defeated Davenport in straight sets. A two-time champion at Indian Wells and a finalist four other times, Davenport got off to a great start against Clijsters, then faltered. Coming off a victory over Maria Sharapova in which she didn't lose a game, Davenport shot out to a 4-0 lead over Clijsters. The 21-year-old from Belgium then reeled off a string of six games to take the first set as Davenport suddenly began making mistakes. Davenport, 28, regained her composure and came back to win the second set, but Clijsters — hitting her ground strokes consistently on or near the lines — took control in the third. There definitely were some momentum swings. "It was crazy," Davenport said. "Started off really well, kind of continued where I was yesterday (against Sharapova). Pretty soon I felt the tide turned from me being the aggressor to her being the aggressor. "It's funny, when things start spiraling, you feel like they're out of your control. I was behind the baseline and she was inside the baseline, and that's not what I wanted to happen." Clijsters, whose accurate, consistent baseline game is a good foil for the power-hitting Davenport, has won each of their last six matches, dating back to a loss at Zurich in 2002. Clijsters holds a 9-6 edge in all their meetings. The layoff after last year's Indian Wells tournament dropped Clijsters from No. 2 to 133rd in the rankings, and she was unseeded at Indian Wells. Her only other tournament this year was at Antwerp, where she lost to Venus Williams in the quarterfinals. Davenport, the 1997 and 2000 champion here and the loser to Justine Henin-Hardenne in last year's final, was a gracious loser. She had come back from knee surgery that kept her out of the 2002 tournament, so she could appreciate how strongly Clijsters has bounced back. "To come back and be the player she is, is a testament to her. So I congratulate her," Davenport said. Although her low ranking was because of her lack of tournaments last year, Clijsters became the lowest-ranked Tier I singles champion by 75 spots. Iva Majoli was ranked No. 58 when she won the 2002 Charleston title.
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