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Experienced Americans plan to reassert dominance
NEW YORK, Aug 25 - For the past two years American women have been conspicuous by their absence on finals weekend at the U.S. Open. Having provided all five champions between 1998 and 2002, the host nation has been sidelined first by Belgian pair Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters, then by the Russian wave, with Svetlana Kuznetsova beating Elena Dementieva in the 2004 final. The United States can still boast two current grand slam champions, in Serena Williams, the Australian Open winner, and her elder sister Venus, who produced a startling comeback to win the Wimbledon title in July. Throw in Lindsay Davenport, who has spent most of the year as the world number one and who reached the final in Australia and at Wimbledon, and the U.S. challenge is strong, even if the next U.S. woman in the rankings is Lisa Raymond at a lowly 47. Monica Seles is semi-retired, Jennifer Capriati is missing through injury and the future of American women's tennis does not look too bright, but with the Williams sisters and Davenport the U.S. will expect to provide at least one finalist at the year's last grand slam event. Of the three, Venus is the most in-form, though she pulled out of tournaments in Stockholm and Toronto in recent weeks because of influenza. Assuming she has fully recovered, the confidence she gained from her victory at Wimbledon, where she beat Davenport in the final to win her first grand slam title in four years, should give her a great chance. Venus reached the final at Stanford in July before fatigue caught up with her. Past experience suggests that if she shows up, she will be a threat to Henin-Hardenne, Clijsters and the Russian brigade, led by their first women's world number one, Maria Sharapova. The same goes for Serena, though the injuries which have blighted her season appear much more difficult to overcome. WEAK KNEE After winning her seventh grand slam title in Melbourne, she sprained her ankle in a fall injury at Amelia Island in Florida in April and then hurt her left knee, an injury which saw her pull out of last week's Toronto event. "I was playing well at the beginning of the year but I injured my ankle on my left leg unfortunately. When I wasn't moving or working out my leg I lost a lot of the strength...in that area," she said in Toronto. "I've been doing some strengthening to get it stronger but my movement isn't 100 percent." Davenport, 29, has enjoyed a remarkable past 12 months, regaining the world number one ranking and reaching at least the semi-finals in four of the last five grand slam events. Her retirement, which seemed imminent after her defeat by Sharapova in the semi-finals at Wimbledon in 2004, has seemingly been put out of her mind. Though she went desperately close in Melbourne and at Wimbledon this year, it is more than five years since she last won a grand slam title -- the 2000 Australian Open. A back injury caused her to withdraw from her last event, but she has an excellent record at Flushing Meadows, having reached the last four in seven of the past eight years.
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