FILDERSTADT — On October 12, 1998, 22-year-old Lindsay Davenport became world No. 1 for the first time in her career, reaching the top of the WTA rankings despite a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Sandrine Testud in the final of the Porsche Open in Filderstadt. The milestone capped a breakthrough season highlighted by her first Grand Slam title at the US Open, where she defeated then-world No. 1 Martina Hingis 6-3, 7-5 in the final. Davenport would go on to hold the No. 1 ranking for a total of 98 weeks.
The move to No. 1 came as Hingis, the defending champion in Filderstadt, fell in the quarterfinals to Dominique Monami 6-3, 6-7, 6-4. Davenport advanced to the final with a 7-6, 6-4 semifinal win over Arantxa Sanchez before finishing runner-up to Testud, results that were enough to lift her to the top spot the following week. “I never grew up thinking that I could be the best in the world, or one of the most successful players, and it managed to happen,” Davenport reflected in 2020 in an interview for the ITF Youtube Channel.
Born in 1976 in Palos Verdes, California, Davenport turned pro in 1993 and quickly made an impact, winning her first title at the European Open in Switzerland, reaching the fourth round at the US Open, and beating world No. 6 Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 6-2 in Philadelphia to finish the year at world No. 20. Sabatini described her game simply: “She likes to hit the ball hard into the corner. Very, very hard.” Davenport entered the top 10 in 1994 and finished runner-up at the WTA Championships to Sabatini 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, struggled with family issues and dropped out of the top 10 in 1995, then rebuilt her conditioning to win Olympic gold in Atlanta in 1996 over Sanchez 7-6, 6-2. In 1997 she won six tournaments including Indian Wells and reached the US Open semifinals, falling to Hingis 6-2, 6-4.
The 1998 season was her best to that point. By the end of August she had claimed four titles, beating Hingis in finals in Tokyo and Los Angeles, and delivered consistent Grand Slam results with semifinal runs at the Australian Open, where she lost to Conchita Martinez 4-6, 6-3, 6-3, and at Roland-Garros, where she lost to Sanchez 6-3, 7-6. In New York she broke through for her first major, beating Hingis 6-3, 7-5 to close the gap on the top ranking.
Davenport finished four seasons as world No. 1 in 1998, 2001, 2004 and 2005, and added two more Grand Slam singles titles at Wimbledon in 1999 over Steffi Graf 6-4, 7-5 and at the Australian Open in 2000 over Hingis 6-1, 7-5. She lost her next four major finals, all to the Williams sisters — three to Venus at Wimbledon in 2000 and 2005 and at the US Open in 2000, and one to Serena at the 2005 Australian Open. After announcing her first pregnancy in December 2006, she returned in July 2007 to win her 53rd career singles title in Quebec City, before a second pregnancy announced in January 2009 ended her singles career. She later coached Madison Keys, worked as a broadcaster for Tennis Channel, and was inducted into the Tennis Hall of Fame in 2014.