Injured Davenport pulls out of season's finale

World number one Lindsay Davenport's season ended on a sad note on Sunday when injury forced her to pull out of the final of the WTA Championships.

Davenport, who returned to number one and made sure of ending the year in top spot by beating Kim Clijsters in the semifinals, was due to play fellow American Serena Williams in the final of the season-ending event.

She informed tournament officials that she had felt pain in her troublesome right knee at the end of her match against Belgian Clijsters on Saturday and could not play.

"This is one of the toughest days of my career," said Davenport, who was sidelined by a similar knee injury for two-and-a-half months earlier in the season.

"I can't tell you how bad I feel. It's the worst possible way to end the season. It's almost impossible for me to walk. I won't be able to do anything for a month."

Seventh seed Williams, playing her first tournament since losing to sister Venus in the U.S. Open final last September, became the first player to win the year-end Championships at the first attempt.

"It's more strange than frustrating," said the 20-year-old, who was practising on the court when she was told that Davenport could not play.

"I completely understand the position that Lindsay is in," added the younger Williams after making sure of $750,000 in prize money without hitting a ball.

"I talked to Lindsay about it and she's feeling pretty rough. I just hope she gets better soon. I've never had a win like this before."

Davenport then came to apologise to the 6,000 fans in Munich's Olympic hall, who had to settle for the doubles final, before flying home to have further checks on a bruised bone of a right knee.

RESURGENCE

The 25-year-old had completed her brilliant resurgence on Saturday, shrugging off a brave challenge from Clijsters to end the season at number one for the second time in her career after 1998.

The towering American, who has not reached a Grand Slam final this year but has been unstoppable since the start of the indoor season, will overtake compatriot Jennifer Capriati when the final 2001 WTA rankings are released on Monday.

Capriati, who captured top spot for the first time in her career last month, would have remained the number one had she made the final.

But the former teenage sensation, who staged a remarkable comeback this year by winning the Australian and French Open titles, was weakened by fever and a throat infection when she lost to France's Sandrine Testud in the quarter-finals on Friday.

Davenport, who won three tournaments in a row to move into second place just 61 points behind Capriati prior to the season's finale, racked up 15 straight victories before pulling out of the final.

She first seized the number one ranking on October 12, 1998 and held it for a total of 28 weeks in four stints until May 21 last year.

She becomes the sixth player to end the season in the number one spot at least twice since the inception of the computer rankings following Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis.