World number one Lindsay Davenport shattered Alicia Molik’s dream of becoming the first home-grown Australian Open champion since 1978, winning an epic quarterfinal in three sets on Wednesday.
Top seed Davenport advanced to a semifinal with 19th-seeded Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy on Thursday after downing 10th seed Molik 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 in a gruelling battle of two hours and 33 minutes.
Davenport, chasing her fourth career grand-slam title, looked to have squandered victory when she had her serve broken by Molik after holding match point at 5-4 in the final set.
The next four games went with serve, but Davenport scored the all-important break to take an 8-7 lead, and then recovered from 15-40 down in the 16th game to hold serve and seal victory with a forehand volley.
”I don’t know how I did that. I really thought I’d let the match get away from me in the final set,” said Davenport after a tie played in fierce heat, which forced a 10-minute break following the second set to give players a rest.
”I don’t know how I got it back. It was a match with a lot of ups and downs.”
Despite sending down 14 aces, Davenport also committed 11 double faults — including four in a row at one point — and said her service problems affected the rest of her game.
”Today, I struggled with my serve. I didn’t feel the same conviction and the same confidence when I would get up to the line,” she said.
”If I’m serving well and picking my spots, I definitely play with a lot more confidence. I did struggle a bit on serve and sometimes that doesn’t allow me to go for quite as much as I’d like to.”
Melbourne-based Molik, bidding to become the first Australian to win the singles title at the Australian Open since Chris O’Neil 27 years ago, refused to be downcast at the end of a campaign that has helped propel her into the top 10.
”The bottom line is I probably had a chance out there to win today. I guess I can be comforted by the fact that I feel like I’m going to put myself in more positions like today to beat the top five players in the world,” she said.
”I am in the top 10 now. I think I will stay there. But it’s opportunities like today that in the future I’ll look to take advantage of.
”Today I see it as the one that got away. But I can’t be too disappointed.”
After losing the first set when she started slowly and suffered two service breaks, Molik was in trouble again early in the second set, when Davenport broke for a 2-1 lead.
Yet Molik broke back immediately after Davenport double-faulted in the next game. The next five games went with serve, both players serving powerfully to leave Molik 5-4 up.
But just as a tie break loomed, Davenport’s service game faltered, with two consecutive double-faults handing Molik the set.
Davenport’s service jitters carried over into the third set, when two more double-faults helped Molik to a 0-40 lead in the second game.
But, crucially, the young Australian was unable to make it count and Davenport recovered, holding serve after staving off a further break point.
The next four games went with serve before Davenport broke again for a 4-3 lead, holding to go 5-3 up. Molik held and fought back to break for 5-5, but saw the match slip away when she was broken in the all-important 15th game.
It could have been different if a Molik ace had been called in when she held advantage point. Instead it was called long and Davenport went on to win the game for an 8-7 lead.
Molik said she had thought her serve had been good but refused to blame it for the defeat.
”In each and every tennis match, some go for you, some go against you,” she said. ”That particular call, the serve, I felt like it was in … But until you see the replay, it’s really difficult to judge.” — Sapa-AFP