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Davenport, Clijsters in race for year-end No. 1 ranking
(AP)
Updated: 2005-11-08 16:51
LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Without the Williams sisters, Lindsay Davenport finds
herself the lone American at the WTA Championships, where she and Kim Clijsters
are contending for the year-end No. 1 ranking.
 Davenport takes a 155-point lead over the second-ranked Belgian into the
season-ending tournament that begins Tuesday at Staples Center.
Clijster's statistics are better than Davenport's, having won nine titles and
66 matches to six tournaments and 58 matches for the American.
"I never thought I could have a season like this," said Clijsters, who missed
the tournament last year because of wrist surgery.
Davenport will try to end the year at No. 1 for the fourth time in her
career.
"It's a great goal to have and it's a great kind of incentive this week," she
said Monday. "If it doesn't happen, it's not something that is going to worry me
all that much. Kim totally deserves it."
Clijsters is equally sanguine about regaining the top spot to cap a year in
which she won the U.S. Open for her first Grand Slam title.
"It would just make the year even more special, but it's not like it's on my
mind now," she said. "If it happens, great. If it doesn't, that's not going to
make my year worse."
Davenport and Clijsters both have played well since the U.S. Open, where the
American lost a three-set quarterfinal to Elena Dementieva. Davenport won all
three of the tournaments she played since; Clijsters won two of three.
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