TENNIS: Looking Ahead: Chase Championships

By Tom Kosinski Sports Central Columnist

The WTA Sanex Tour ends November 19th with the finals of the Chase Championships. The top sixteen women will converge the week of November 13th to the 19th at Madison Square Garden in New York City for the end of the season demonstration of world class tennis. The Chase Championships (formerly known as the Virginia Slims Championships) have been held at the Garden for over two decades now. Past champions include: Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Martina Hingis, and Lindsay Davenport, to name a few. This year's field will be equally as talented, and should provide even more superb and spectacular tennis.

The field currently includes "Swiss Miss" Martina Hingis, the No. 1 woman player in the world, Linsday Davenport, the Williams sisters, and pin-up girl Anna Kournikova, and is rounded out with hard-hitting Mary Pierce, the always dangerous Monica Seles, "the little assassin" Amanda Coetzer, French women Nathalie Tauziat, and Sandrine Testud. Not to mention Spaniards Conchita Martinez and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Anke Huber, Chanda Rubin, Amelie Mauresmo, and the re-born Jennifer Capriati.

Venus Williams' success at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open tournaments earlier this year make her the clear favorite, but with this cast of strong competition, anything can and most likely will happen.

Martina Hingis has made it to at least the semifinals for the past four years and Lindsay Davenport has been a finalist the past two. Both have games which can beat Venus or Serena and both have recent wins over them.

Venus and Serena Williams will come to New York (along with now-famous father and biggest fan, Richard) with their "take no prisoners" power games and should easily make it through to the round of eight.

My guess is that only one will make it to the semis. Hingis and Davenport should also make it to the last four. Don't be surprised if a resurgent Capriati or dark horse Amelie Mauresmo make an appearance in the semis, as each one is coming to the party riding a string of successes. The final is predicted to be one of the Williams sisters versus either Martina Hingis or Lindsay Davenport (assuming they are all not in the same side of the draw, the draw was not available at press time) with Hingis winning, if she is in and with either Williams winning if Davenport is in.

Davenport plays a power game which the Williams tend to feed off of and eat up, while Hingis plays a smart, complete game which has proven over the past two years to give both Williams their most trouble.

Either way, and no matter who in the field of sixteen makes it to the final, it will be one great championship match.

This year's field will be competing for $2,000,000 in prize money, one of the largest purses ever for either women or men. This is a significant point, as in recent months there continues to be a widening split over equal prize money for both men and women and the women players led by number one Hingis have hinted that they may boycott any of the Grand Slams if the prize money is not equal.

Both the U.S. Open and the Australian Open now give equal prize money to both sexes, but the other Grand Slams (the French Open and Wimbledon) still have the men competing for more than the women. This, despite the sharp increase in popularity of the women's game and the much higher ratings than the men's tour on television and at the venues.

If you're like me, you can't wait until the Chase Championships gets started.

Article courtesy of Sports Central