Without too much surprise we crown the Scottsdale winners "Champs" for this week. Lindsay Davenport may have not played her best tennis at this year's State Farm Women's Classic but she ultimately pulled through and decisively defeated hometown sweetheart, Meghann Shaughnessy, in the final. Davenport ranks right up there with her fellow-Californian, Pete Sampras, on the "boring personality" scale but nevertheless she remains one of the best ambassadors for women's tennis today. While not giving the media anything meaty to bite their teeth into, Davenport was always well spoken, gracious, and good-humored. While Davenport is getting quite used to holding a trophy above her head, the same can not quite be said of Franklin Templeton champion Francisco Clavet. While the Spaniard has won seven career titles, it took thirteen years on the ATP Tour for him to win his first hardcourt title. The genuineness of Clavet's joy of winning this title at age 32 could even make a hard-core cynic (which this writer thinks he is quickly becoming!) crack a smile. Additionally, Clavet's victories of three Top 10 players (Andre Agassi, Lleyton Hewitt, and Magnus Norman) en route to the championship made it even more special. With the ATP's marketing campaign trumpeting their hot young players and "cash cow" stars, it was thrilling to see Clavet shake things up a bit.

There are always some little known players that make an impression on me during a tournament. At the State Farm, Tina Pisnik made my list of memorable moments. During a third-set tiebreak against Elena Likhovtseva in the first round Pisnik hit a netcord the dribbled over the net in her favor. In cases like this, usually a timid and apologetic hand is raised. Not with Pisnik, she dropped her racquet and pumped her clenched fists into the air. It was this refreshingly honest reaction that won me (and the crowd) over. The spunky Slovenian qualifier, who sports tattoos on her shoulder and ankle, won the match against Likhovtseva and advance to the quarterfinals losing to Jennifer Capriati.

Another WTA player who raised my eyebrows was Elena Bovina. The statuesque Russian showed off her powerful game in both singles and doubles at Scottsdale. Though the wildcard entrant lost in the first round to eventual finalist, Shaughnessy, she won the first set in impressive fashion. But even in defeat, I wondered why Bovina was ranked in the mid-100's on the WTA computer rankings. She seemed to possess enough of game to at least get by players ranked outside the Top 50. But my observations may have proved correct. This week Bovina made a career-best tournament showing this week in Indian Wells by reaching the quarterfinals (once again as a wildcard).

Finally with both Sampras and Agassi entered in this year's Franklin Templeton, the last thing anyone expected was that the last American left in the tournament would be Mardy Fish. Fish, a wildcard entrant, earned his biggest career victory to date defeating Thomas Enqvist in the second round. Although he would fall to Magnus Norman in the quarterfinals, not much separated the 19-year-old and the Swede in their tight three-set duel. Clearly gaining confidence from his Scottsdale result, Fish continued to post impressive wins over Mark Philippoussis and Wayne Ferreira this week in Indian Wells.