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| �1998 Reuter/WTA |
| Lindsay Davenport. |
Saturday, Nov. 21 2:39am ET
NEW YORK -- Lindsay Davenport took all of six days to get another chance at Steffi Graf.
Last Sunday, Graf came from behind to defeat Davenport in the final of a tournament in Philadelphia. Since then, the 29-year-old Graf has stretched her match winning streak to 12 and is seeking her third consecutive title since undergoing wrist surgery in September.
"She is obviously playing the best tennis right now, and you always want to kind of go up against the best, and she has definitely been doing that her last couple of tournaments," Davenport said of her semifinal opponent Saturday in the Chase Championships of the Corel WTA Tour. "Sometimes it is great to kind of get back out there against someone that you recently lost to and some of the stuff is still fresh in your mind."
Davenport is top-seeded in this season-ending, 16-player tournament, while Graf, a five-time winner of the Championships, is undefeated in the Madison Square Garden event for the first time in 13 appearances, having never been ranked lower than No. 3.
"I'm in the semis and I have a pretty tough opponent next up," Graf said. "So that is all I am worried about right now. I mean, I have survived this far, so we will see what comes up next."
Saturday's other semifinal will pit second-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland against unseeded Irina Spirlea of Romania.
Davenport advanced to the semifinals Friday night by easily defeating eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France 6-0, 6-3. Hingis clinched a berth with a 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over No. 6 Mary Pierce of France.
"I feel pretty confident after this match," Hingis said. "I just played a pretty good match tonight and I am looking forward to the next one. I am very positive."
Davenport took just 19 minutes to wrap up the opening set. While Tauziat provided much stiffer opposition in the second set, there was no question as to who would win, only what the final score would be.
"The first set I played really great tennis," Davenport said. "I don't think I had many errors. I was seeing the ball well."
The Frenchwoman won her first game 30 minutes into the match."She played good tonight," Tauziat said of Davenport. "But compared to the other time, I don't play really good tonight, so maybe that made the difference. But she didn't make a lot of mistakes today, that is for sure."
The final point of the night was a microcosm of the entire match. Tauziat pounded what she thought was a winner deep into the corner. Somehow, Davenport got to the ball and lifted a defensive backhand lob into the lights. The ball bounced just inside the sideline halfway between the service line and baseline. Tauziat lined it up, prepared properly, then pounded the ball into the middle of the net.
Hingis and Pierce was a replay of last year's quarterfinals, which Pierce won in three sets. This time, Hingis didn't let it get that far.
"I just have to give Martina credit," Pierce said. "I haven't really seen her play that well in a long time. She really stepped up her game, hitting the ball, playing aggressive. "I don't know if she has a new racket, but she is definitely hitting with more power than the last few times I played her."
Hingis is seeking her second trip to the final in her three trips to the Garden. In her debut in 1996, she lost in five sets to Graf.
Sunday's title match will be a best-of-5 sets, the only time women play more than three sets. The winner will collect $500,000, with $250,000 going to the losing finalist.
The top eight doubles teams are also competing on the Garden's blue carpet.
