By Chris Davies
January 28 2005

The Australian Open Final Preview, in this all American clash with the world number one Lindsay Davenport against a rejuvenated 7th seed Serena Williams who are both previous winners of this tournament. (7) Serena Williams (USA) v (1) Lindsay Davenport (USA)

This all-American clash sets up an old style clash and re-establishes a previous rivalry between these pair over the last few years. After the last 3 Grand Slam Finals which consisted of an all-Russian battle it's nice to see different but old favourites in this Final. Both have claimed the title before and have had a long major drought with Serena not winning since Wimbledon 2003 and Davenport the Australian Open 2000. The world number one who was by far the best player last year eventhough she failed to even make a major final was in fantastic form, losing to Sharapova in the semi-final of Wimbledon after a letting a commanding slip vanish and in the US Open final against Svetlana Kuznetsova when her hip injury reoccured. She probably does deserve this honour more than her rival, but the 7th seed will be there fighting every single ball throughout the final to ensure she claims the title.

Williams has had a up and down route through to the final winning in straight sets during her first 3 rounds, then Petrova took her all the way and looked has if she would be exiting earlier than she was expecting but came through. Mauresmo was no tough task for her and easily despatched her in straight sets but Sharapova was a different type of opponent. The Russian held 3 match points to end Serena's dreams, but the fighting spirit that the William's sisters have been forced to undertake came through and thats what will make her tough to beat in the final.

Davenport has played different calibre of opponents in Conchita Martinez, Pastikova, Vaidisova and Sprem who are up and coming youngsters along with very experienced veterans but the world number one came through in straight sets. Alicia Molik was has been in tremendous form since last year and the American did an excellent job to oust the Aussie even if it was by a whisker, a victory is a victory. Nathalie Dechy who was probably surprised to even get to this stage caused a lot of problems but after the battle of the quarter-final that Davenport at to endure there was no surprise that she was not at her best. The French lady was 2 points away from victory but the former champion prevailed and came through in the end.

One thing that will hugely go into William's favour is the fitness that she has over Davenport. After all Davenport has sadly put herself through not only a lot of time on court through singles but also made the final of the doubles with some long gruelling 3 set clashes. Serena is back to her near best level and will be incredibly tough to beat which could make it a bit of a disappointing match the only thing that Davenport needs to do is get the points over quickly and make sure her serving is well up into the 60% - 70% area. The pair have met 13 times with Serena heading the tie easily 9-4, but Lindsay has claimed the last 2 and most importantly on hardcourts last year with Williams not winning since 2003 on clay which will give her a slight mental disadvantage.

I fear for Davenports fitness levels and sadly this final may not live up to what people are expecting and what it can be. Not only do the fans deserve a good hard fought gruelling final but womens tennis needs some rivalry again and establish matches that people will remember for years to come.

My prediction is that Serena will become the winner in straight sets, they both deserve this title and the better player on the day will be Williams.