Lindsay Davenport staged an astonishing turnaround from 4-6, 1-4 down -- with a little help from an easily-discouraged opponent -- to defeat Martina Hingis 4-6, 6-4, 6-0. Davenport thus claims her second title of the year and moves closer to what seems like her inevitable return to number one. The WTA tells us that it's mathematically possible that the crown might change hands in two weeks at the next tour stop, the Ericsson Open at Key Biscayne.

Hingis served early notice that she intended to reverse the recent pattern of dominance Davenport had established over her (four consecutive wins, all in straight sets). After an easy hold in the first game, serving mainly to Davenport's forehand, Hingis worried the American's serve in game two, gaining a break point and forcing the game to three deuces before Davenport won the game with a forcing cross-court backhand (this was probably Lindsay's best weapon in the match). Holding her own serve easily (Hingis made an astonishing 82 percent of first serves in this set), she finally broke Davenport's serve with the score 4-4. Lindsay was in the difficult sun court, and appeared to have problems in this game with two Hingis lobs. On the first point of the game Davenport muffed an easy overhead, and at 15-15 she lost three straight points on a backhand in the net, a double fault and another Hingis lob which Davenport appeared to lose in the sun -- she gave up on the ball way too early and the lob landed a good four feet inside the baseline.

Leading 5-4 and serving for the set, Hingis got down 15-30. She pulled even at 30-30 with a crosscourt forehand winner after a long rally. A service winner to Davenport's backhand made it 40-30, and an unforced Daveport backhand error on Hingis's first match point completed the first set, 6-4 Hingis, in 34 minutes. Several things stood out at this point. We already alluded to the fact that Hingis was giving Davenport very few second serves to attack, and Davenport was having trouble getting returns in play. Martina was playing almost flawlessly from the baseline with only four unforced errors, as opposed to Lindsay, who was being forced to hit shots on the run and making too many errors (14 in this set, many coming on the forehand side). "Her balls landed very deep, a little higher," explained Davenport. "She's never done that against me before. The depth of her ball forced me to go for more and make some errors." Davenport was clearly getting exasperated with her forehand, shrugging and looking skyward as her shots went astray.

The second set started out much like the first. Davenport was again worried in the first game on her serve, Hingis holding a break point and forcing two deuces before Davenport won the game on a moonball (GASP!) which Hingis tried to half volley and attack, only to be lobbed by Davenport, who was obviously trying to change things up at this point. Hingis did break Davenport's serve the next time she had the chance, at 1-1: at deuce Hingis hit a fabulous running backhand cross-court winner, and took the game when Lindsay hit another shot wide. Martina was on a roll here, and held easily thanks to a 101 mph ace (!) to go up 3-1. Then came the key sequence that turned around the match.

Serving at 2-4, Davenport was in trouble again 15-30 on her serve. Here she displayed her best sequence of points of the match so far: a forehand winner, a backhand winner, and a swinging two-handed backhand volley. One sensed the American inspired by her success, and the pro-Davenport crowd began roaring in support of their girl. Then with Hingis serving at 3-4 and the crowd hollering still for Davenport, the American kept the pressure on, forcing Hingis to 0-40 on another cross-court backhand winner, a Hingis backhand that landed out, and a Davenport cross-court forehand that forced Hingis to try a scrambling lob that was too long. Hingis saved one break point with a trademark up-the-line backhand, but Lindsay clinched the break when Hingis, coming to net behind an approach shot that was too short to be effective, was passed with a ripping cross-court Davenport forehand.

It was now 4-4, and from this point Davenport won the remaining ten games in the match as her groundstrokes had become powerful and reliable again, and Hingis, shockingly, folded like a cheap chaise longue. Hingis: "I was a little bit disappointed maybe that I didn't take my chances at 4-3 serving. You just kind of lose your focus." Davenport: "4-3 down, I figured I was going to have to start going for it even more, just trying to get on my toes, bounce around and see what I can do. I hit a couple of good shots to break. All of a sudden the match turned around with that one break."

After Davenport confidently closed out the send set 6-4, we were curious to see how Hingis would come out for the third set. She played reasonably well against Davenport's serve in the opening game, forcing her to deuce despite an ace that Hingis angrily disputed, but Davenport was serving aces and hitting winners past an incresingly tired and frustrated Hingis. In the second game Hingis's serve was broken yet again: at 30-30 Davenport set up a break point with a blazing cross-court forehand winner, and at 30-40 Hingis misfired on a routine backhand. After this error, Hingis bounced her racquet and tossed it to the ground, a gesture greeted with the customary chorus of boos, and it was 2-0 Davenport. At this point Davenport was imperial and Hingis increasingly looked like she had thrown in the towel, with odd shots (a drop shot that barely reached the net in game four), and with unconvincing net-rushing in the final games: it looked like she mainly wanted to get it over with. Davenport kept up the pressure, buffeting her cross-court winners, and the outcome was no longer in doubt when Hingis double-faulted on match point. Make the final: 4-6, 6-4, 6-0.

Davenport noticed the odd and precipitous drop in Hingis's confidence once Davenport picked up her game in the middle of the set. "She got frustrated as soon as it got back to 4-all.... I just kind of hung with her until I was just barely able to get on top of her. She kind of folded in a way." While Hingis realized that she lost her focus, she also said she was tired and criticized the scheduling here: "I played singles [yesterday], then we played a tough doubles, coming out here at 12:00, hottest weather, hottest time. Maybe in the future that will change, that both players will have the same chances to go into the final playing both Thursday, then have a day off. I didn't feel like it was very fair."

Be that as it may, it is clear that Davenport has an immense psychological advantage over Hingis, who melts like ice cream in the desert sun when Davenport starts clicking with her power game. The change of the guard at number one appears inevitable, and will perhaps take place as soon as Key Biscayne later this month. By the way, Martina Hingis declined to address the crowd during the trophy presentations. Nobody thought to ask her why at her press conference....

Unseeded Alex Corretja continued his stirring giant-killing run by upsetting his third seed of tournament. After Pat Rafter in the first round and Magnus Norman in the third, Alex impressively beat the young Ecuadorean star Nicolás Lapentti 6-3, 6-4 and has perhaps announced his return to the tennis elite.

Both players started nervously, with an exchange of service breaks in the opening two games. Serves were then held until game 8, when Lapentti was placed in a 15-40 situation by one of a number of Corretja's running forehand winners that he's been impressing us with this week. Lapentti chose a poor time to hoist a backhand long, permitting Corretja to take a 5-3 lead and serve for the set. Alex made no mistake, holding serve at love, and Corretja had the 6-3 lead. Corretja was on fire, running superbly, playing error-free tennis and exploding with forehand winners, while Lapentti was making too many routine errors and made overanxious mistakes when he tried to pull the trigger for a forehand winner.

There was just one break of serve in the second set, with Lapentti serving at 1-1. At 15-30 the pride of Ecuador sent a routine forehand in the net, and Corretja immediately capitalized on his break point with another of his big crosscourt forehands that forced the crucial error. Cat quick, and able to turn from defense to offence rapidly, Corretja was never worried from then on. The final point of the match, however, was perhaps the point of the tournament. Lapentti ran down a short ball at the net and whipped a forehand cross court; Corrtetja sprinted to his forehand side and delivered an astonishing passing shot up the line; Lapentti, anticipating that way, stretched to deliver a backhand volley into the open court, but this shot was too close to the centre line and Corretja, scrambling back that way, reached it and parried the ball safely into the open space to end the match. Make the final: 6-3, 6-4.

Lapentti was too prone to errors to challenge the solid Corretja game today, but he is pleased with his best showing of the year and hopes to keep it going in South Florida next week, where he has a home and many family and friends. And believe me that there are many players, fans and tour staff who are delighted to see Corretja rebound from his burnout of last year: he has never looked better than he has this week. He may have to serve better to stand a chance against Enqvist -- his first serves landed in court only 44 percent of the time, meaning Corrtja has been under 50 percent efficiency two matches in a row -- but I suspect his counterpunching skills will give Thomas Enqvist fits in the final.

Enqvist edges Scud in a thriller:
I cannot say too much about this match because, sentimental fool that I am, I decided to make a final trip to Court Two to admire the sun setting over the mountains that surround the Coachella Valley, breathe the cool air of the early evening under a full moon, and watch a men's doubles match. In doing so I probably missed the match of the tournament, Thomas Enqvist's thrilling semifinal win over defending Indian Wells titlist Mark Philippoussis, 6-3, 6-7 (6-8), 7-6 (10-8). The match had had everything: big serving, power baseline hitting, net forays, smashed racquets, and even a rare code violation called against the gentlemanly Enqvist. It also had choking, primarily by the Swede. Enqvist had chances to serve out the match in both the second and third sets, but played horrible service games both times. He also a 6-1 lead and five match points in the second set tie-break, but could not convert on any and ultimately lost the set. I watched the third set tie-break on a big screen on the grounds, and there was a large crowd gathered around, ooing and ahing with every ace, winner and error. Amazingly, all points went to the server until 8-9, Philippoussis serving. The Aussie unleashed what he thought was a good wide first serve, but the Swede was guessing in that diection and slapped a potent forehand return at the feet of Scud at the baseline. A surprised Philippoussis could not handle it, and Enqvist escaped with a win that was much, much more complicated than it needed to have been.

Having beaten Sampras yesterday and Philippoussis today, Enqvist has disposed of two of the game's most powerful attacking players. Corretja, one of the games best counterpunchers, is in a way the antithesis of Sampras and Philippoussis. Enqvist does not think that adjusting style to the change of styles will be a problem: "We do it all the time on the tour."

Doubles action:

After all the exciting three-set women's doubles matches which have been attracting throngs this week, the easy 6-2, 6-3 final win by Davenport/Morariu over Kournikova/Zvereva was a disappointment. On The Line dearly loves Natasha Zvereva, but we must give her the goat horns for being the weak link on the losing side. Her serve was broken four times, she made repeated volley errors, and did not seem into the proceedings at all. Kournikova did fairly well, especially showing her touch around the net with some lovely angled volleys of the type that we see from Zvereva on her many good days. The woman of the match was Corina Morariu, an unspectacular but solid doubles player, excellent at net, who always seemed to make the right shot at the right time. After the match, Davenport credited Morariu for pulling the team through their tight three set semifial win over Hingis/Pierce as well, so Morariu must have had a great week.

Zvereva did not confine her unforced errors to the court. In her speech at the trophy presentation she started to thank the sponsors, but couldn't remember who they were. She had to be prompted by the gentleman who presented the trophy.

The men's doubles match that I saw instead of the Enqvist-Philippoussis match was a semifinal that featured Americans Alex O'Brien and Jared Palmer against Wayne Ferreira and Yevgeny Kafelnikov. As Yevgeny's many fans probably know, the Russian star is one of the few top men's singles players who also play doubles regularly, and judging by his demonstrative displays of frustration, he takes doubles quite seriously. At one point he even slammed a ball into the net when his partner made an error. I suspected that Ferreira would not have appreciated that! Anyway, the O'Brien/Palmer duo, who should logically be on the US Davis Cup squad in their second round tie against the Czech Republic, were more cohesive at net and finally fended off their opponents' strong return and baseline game, winning 6-4, 6-4. O'Brien/Palmer advance to face Paul Haarhuis and Sandon Stolle in the final.