Two weeks of tennis and seven rounds of matches and it ended with a Californian smile from new Wimbledon ladies singles champion Lindsay Davenport, a sad farewell for seven times champion Steffi Graf and the crowning of Pete Sampras as the greatest grass court player ever, perhaps the greatest outright.
In the aftermath of the women's final, during which Davenport had held her nerve to take the match in two sets 64 7-5, Graf announced that this year would be her last Wimbledon. "I won't be back," she said. "I won't be here as a player again." But Davenport's moment was not entirely overshadowed by Graf's announcement, the German having already been saluted at the French Open four weeks ago. Davenport's victory was her second Grand Slam win, having won the US Open championship last year. She is also now the world number one, having taken her ranking points past those of Martina Hingis, and is also the current Olympic champion. Davenport won because of the strength of her serving and ground strokes. She broke Graf's service game twice, the German unable to threaten Davenport's serve. The American's six feet two inch frame ensured booming deliveries and passing shots which had Graf largely pinned to the back of the court.
Graf leaves Wimbledon with her place in history safely secure. She has won 22 Grand Slam events and earned herself, according to many experts, the title of the best player in the women's game since it went professional in 1968.
Davenport was the first American born woman to appear in a Wimbledon singles final since Zina Garrison-Jackson in 1990.
"I would always say that my best chances were always on hard court and after struggling here for a number of years, to beat Graf and Novotna, who are the best grass court players we have, just makes it the most amazing win," Davenport said. Also making history was American Pete Sampras, who converted three service break opportunities against Andre Agassi to earn him his sixth Wimbledon title. In a match of the sublime quality, the irrepressible Sampras raised his level of play to the highest anyone has seen here in memory to totally out play Agassi. Sampras took the match 6-3 6-4 7-5.
Sampras's and Davenport's victories were made even more special for them in that they were achieved on July 4th, American Independence Day, the most important holiday on the US calendar.
Sampras, in winning his sixth Wimbledon championship, also wallowed in the prestige of equalling Roy Emerson's 12 Grand Slam wins. Sampras now heads to the US Open in September to try and beat that mark.
"That's probably the best I've played in years," he said afterwards.
