Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport needed just seven points Friday to complete a rain-interrupted victory in the Wimbledon semi-finals, beating Amelie Mauresmo 6-7 (5), 7-6 (4), 6-4.
A three-time Grand Slam champion, Davenport advanced to her first major final since 2000. Her opponent on Saturday will be two-time Wimbledon winner Venus Williams, who advanced on Thursday when she eliminated defending champion Maria Sharapova 7-6 (2), 6-1.
Ten minutes after Williams completed her victory, showers halted the other semi-final for the night with Davenport leading 5-3 in the third set and Mauresmo serving at 15-love.
The match resumed nearly 18 hours later, and Mauresmo held serve at love, but Davenport then did the same. When the third-seeded Mauresmo dumped an easy volley in the net on match point, Davenport limited her on-court celebration to a smile.
”It stressed the nerves over the last 24 hours,” Davenport said.
”We were only out there a minute, and you never know what can happen. Fortunately I was able to pull through with a good service game.”
The 1999 Wimbledon champion won her most recent major title at the Australian Open in January 2000. After losing in the Wimbledon semi-finals last year, she spoke of retirement, but a subsequent string of four consecutive hard-court titles changed her mind.
Regardless of Saturday’s result, she’s assured of retaining the number one ranking next week.
Davenport was down a service break twice in the second set. She also rallied in the final set, winning the final three games before play was suspended on Thursday.
”I had all the momentum last night when the rain came,” she said. ”I thought it could work against me.”
Instead, Davenport closed out the victory — her seventh in a row against Mauresmo. The French woman lost her fourth Grand Slam semi-final in a row, including three at Wimbledon, and has yet to win a major title.
”Did I cry? Not yet,” Mauresmo said with a smile. ”I didn’t really sleep last night. It’s a difficult situation, but it’s obviously the same for both of us. … I played good, but not good enough to beat Lindsay, so I’m disappointed.”
Williams looked like the Venus of old against Sharapova, dominating with her serve and pounding ground strokes into the corners to overpower an opponent unaccustomed to being on the defensive. Williams was rewarded with her first berth in a major final since sister Serena beat her for the 2003 Wimbledon title.
”I was always saying the last couple of years that I think it’s just her confidence, and that one tournament here or there was really going to help her,” Davenport said. ”She’s really a great grass court player.”
The final will be a rematch from 2000, when Williams beat Davenport for the championship. Davenport leads the rivalry 14-12 and has won the past four meetings, but Williams has won all three times they’ve played at Wimbledon.
Even if Williams falls short Saturday in a bid for her fifth Grand Slam title, and her first since 2001, she has rebutted the perception that she’s less interested in tennis than in her interior design business or such hobbies as reading and shopping.
”I put tennis first in my life,” she said. ”I wake up in the morning, go to practice, go to the gym, train and give it my best effort.
”The other things that I do are because it makes me happy. I think it complements my tennis and also makes me work harder, because I realise it’s not easy in the real world. But I think my world also is as real as it gets.”
Her world has been complicated by a series of injuries, including shoulder and stomach ailments that hampered her serve.
But in the semi-final, she hit hard serves and overcame six of seven break points against her.
Sharapova, broken just once in the first five rounds, lost her serve four times.
”I don’t have as big a serve as her,” Sharapova said. ”She was serving consistently big.”
The loss snapped a grass court streak of 22 consecutive victories for second-seeded Sharapova.
”I’m obviously very sad,” she said. ”This tournament means a lot to me, more than any other tournament. I guess there are more years to come.”
The precocious Russian hasn’t reached a major final since her surprising title run at Wimbledon a year ago. She still has a good chance to overtake Davenport for the number one ranking during the upcoming hard court season, but remains eager to improve.
”I need to be stronger,” she said. ”The stronger I get, the bigger my serve will be, the easier it will be for me to maybe hold serve and get more free points. But at 18, I don’t think it’s possible to have a huge consistent serve. I know with hard work and practice and repetition it will get bigger and stronger and more accurate.”
At number 13 last year, Sharapova became the lowest-seeded player to win the women’s championship when she beat Serena Williams in the final. At number 14, Venus is seeded even lower and, for a change, won’t have to face her sister for the title.-Sapa-AFP