Shy Davenport strides confidently to centre stage

Finally Lindsay Davenport emerged from the shadows to take her place in the sun. For the 23-year-old Californian this was one occasion where the glare was welcome. For two weeks now she has been asked if it bothered her that when the flash bulbs exploded and the shutters opened it was always Steffi Graf, Anna Kournikova, Venus Williams or, briefly, Martina Hingis who were in the frame. She has always said no.

Yesterday all of that changed in winning the Wimbledon championship 6-4, 7-5 against seven-time winner Graf in a match which hinged on just four possible break points.

Davenport claimed two of those and Graf none, which not only cements the American's place as the world number one, but ensures an enhanced prominence that even the media-shy 6ft 2in right hander from Newport Beach cannot sidestep.

To borrow a phrase from former Northern Ireland secretary, William Whitelaw, Davenport can no longer "go around stirring up apathy".

Yesterday the US Open champion's win had little to do with Graf's creeping years and all to do with the withering power and strong mind of a woman seven years her junior. When Davenport won the toss and decided to receive serve, the strategy was built on the fact that opening games can be unpredictable.

How right she was. Attacking from the beginning the younger player brought the game to deuce three times before earning the service break advantage.

Davenport mis-hit Graf's deep serve to her backhand, but the return dropped over, leaving Graf stranded at the back of the court for the first crucial twist.

Davenport had come into the match as the first American-born finalist since Zina Garrison in 1990. Indeed, only a select few such players, including Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Andrea Jaeger and Garrison, have attained this feat since the competition went openly professional in 1968. But with Graf, Davenport was playing an icon as much as a multiple champion and nerves were expected to show.

The nine-time Wimbledon finalist was given an opening in the second game of the first set at 30-40 but she was unable to upset the American, who made only a handful of unforced errors in the entire match, none of them at pivotal moments.

The foundation of the Davenport game, her serve, which had provided the basis for her run through the draw without dropping a set, consistently pinned Graf to the back court. And with the German's backhand misfiring, Graf found herself in the unusual position of chasing a match.

"She served really well. It was difficult for me to figure out where she was going. She had me always guessing and she didn't make any unforced errors," said Graf.

"She is that kind of person that goes out there and really plays and rarely gets affected by the atmosphere or being in a final. She seemed to have been pretty calm." And that is how it looked. The 17-year-old Mirjana Lucic had crumbled in the semi-final, but Graf could exploit no fracture in Davenport's strategy. Even with rain again interrupting play in the second set after an hour and five minutes when Davenport was 3015 up in the 10th game, the American emerged to simply drill out shots as if nothing had happened.

"The rain delay helped me a bit," she explained. "It helped me calm down and just relax about the whole thing and look at the situation and say `my gosh, I'm doing so well. I'm so close I can do this'."

In the game after the enforced break, the 11th, Graf again dropped serve - she was unable to get across for a forehand as the American thumped a weak return cross court. Davenport then shook off any sense of nerves and confidently served out for the match.

"I was more in shock than anything. I didn't know what to do. It was the most unbelievable thing: I was not nervous. I'm telling you, it was totally bizarre," she said.

"At 5-5 it was weird. I had my first break point (in the 2nd set), I won it. I switched sides and I was fine. I just kept my cool." Unlike Graf, as the new champion Davenport will not be immediately be taken to heart by the fickle crowd, despite her affable off-court manner. For Graf it was a disappointment, not just to lose the match but to come out with a chance of winning and not perform as well as she had expected. It was heightened by the fact that she knew before stepping on court that it was her last Wimbledon.

"If you get broken right in the first game, it's not a very good start and I think it gives the opponent a good feeling going into the match," she said. "It's disappointing because I didn't play up to the level that I can and unfortunately my backhand didn't work very well today. I made too many unforced errors and that's why I'm disappointed. I felt a little flat and she played so well."

For her part Davenport intends to continue to dodge attention-seeking stunts. Normal length skirts, perfect behaviour, good manners, articulate - and a Wimbledon champion. There must be something the publicity guys can do with that!