Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport and number three Amelie Mauresmo were sent packing on Wednesday as Elena Dementieva and Mary Pierce set up a semifinal clash at the United States Open tennis championships.
Pierce, the 12th seed, got the upset ball rolling with a convincing 6-4, 6-1 victory over her friend and French FedCup teammate Mauresmo.
Sixth-seeded Dementieva saved a match point in the tiebreaker en route to a 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (8/6) victory over Davenport.
”It’s all about instincts,” Dementieva said of her forehand return that denied Davenport’s match point. ”You’re just going for every shot because you know that one point can make a big difference.
”It was a very close match, so even though she had a match point, I never gave up. I was just going for the winner.”
After two exchanges of breaks in the third, Dementieva served for the match at 6-5. She fell behind 0-40 and finally gave up the game on one of her 12 double faults.
Undaunted, she took a 5-2 lead in the tie-break, only for Davenport to rattle off four straight points.
Once she’d saved Davenport’s match point, Dementieva gave herself one with a drop shot and then fired a winner past the American to complete the triumph.
”It’s hard to come back in the tie break and get up and end up losing it,” said Davenport, who was runner-up at both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year. ”The bottom line is you’ve got to play better than that in a quarterfinal.”
Davenport, who had wrested the world number-one ranking back from 18-year-old Maria Sharapova after just one week on Monday, hadn’t dropped a set in her first four matches, but she came out flat against Dementieva, who was runner-up to Svetlana Kuznetsova here last year in an all-Russian final.
”If you don’t go out there playing your best, you’ve got to try to find a way to turn the match around and hang in the match,” she said. ”I was able to do that. Then right in the third, whenever I had some chances to turn it around, then I wouldn’t play well.”
Dementieva said her own performance had something to do with that.
”Sometimes it’s not because she did so many mistakes for nothing,” said Dementieva, one of the few players who can match Davenport’s power from the ground. ”I was playing well from the beginning and maybe that’s why she did so many mistakes from the beginning.”
Pierce certainly put Mauresmo on her back foot, using her powerful ground strokes to dictate the points.
”She put me under a lot of pressure, not only on her service games but also on the return of my service games,” said Mauresmo, who double-faulted twice in the final game of the opening set. ”When you don’t have too many opportunities on your opponent’s serve, then you have to serve to stay in the set knowing that she takes every risk, it makes it pretty tough.”
Pierce, who has already reached the French Open final this year, has now made it into the final four of the US Open for the first time.
Pierce became just the second Frenchwoman — after Mauresmo in 2002 — to reach the US Open semifinals.
Mauresmo, once again, goes home from a grand slam empty-handed. The former world number one, with 17 WTA Tour titles to her credit, has never won a major championship.
Pierce has won two — the 1995 Australian Open and the French Open in 2000 — in a roller-coaster career that is again on the upswing this year.
In addition to reaching the French Open final, Pierce won the WTA Tier One title at San Diego on August 17.
”It’s amazing,” Pierce said. ”What can I say? I’m 30. This is my 17th year on the tour, and there’s still firsts for me. That’s pretty exciting.”
The first women’s semifinal was set on Tuesday night as top-seeded Sharapova survived her first real test of the tournament to post a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 victory over ninth-seeded compatriot Nadia Petrova.
She’ll battle Kim Clijsters for a final berth after the Belgian rallied for a 4-6, 7-5, 6-1 victory over Wimbledon champion Venus Williams.
Agassi electrifies
Meanwhile, Andre Agassi electrified the US Open on Wednesday with a battling quarterfinal win over a man 10 years his junior, just two months after he wondered if injuries would let him play tennis again.
”It’s pretty amazing, pretty amazing,” the 35-year-old American said. ”It just feels great.
”The time I spent during Wimbledon at home, not knowing if I’ll play again, let alone be ready in just a few weeks’ time … I certainly feel a bit overwhelmed with it.
”I love this sport, and to have a chance to be out here doing this is amazing to me.”
Amazing was the word as Agassi rallied from two sets to love down to beat fellow American James Blake 3-6, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).
Not only did the victory keep Agassi’s 20th US Open campaign going, but it also vindicated his decision to pick and choose his tournaments since his forced withdrawal from Wimbledon in order to protect his body and avoid a flare-up of a chronic sciatic-nerve problem.
Agassi, questioned wherever he goes now about his retirement plans, said the match had all of the elements that keep him coming back for more.
”I don’t know if I can put in context with how this compares with some of my greatest moments on tennis courts, but it’s right up there,” said Agassi, an eight-time grand-slam champion and one of only five men to win all four grand-slam titles.
”This means as much to me as doing it in a finals,” he said. ”This is what it’s all about: authentic competition. Having respect for each other’s game, respect for each other as a person. It all came together tonight.”
Blake, while disappointed, said he was proud to be part of the match, which had the 20 000-strong crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium on its feet repeatedly.
”I guess I feel as good as I can feel, I fought my heart out,” he said.
The surge of support for Agassi was a contrast for Blake, a local kid whose personal travails of 2004 had made him the sentimental crowd favourite in his first four matches.
”I had the crowd on my side for the first four matches, unbelievably strong,” he said. ”To see how they reacted to him and see how much they wanted a champion like him to advance, it was great.”
Agassi seemed almost bemused by the ovations.
”It’s all a bit surreal,” he said. ”I get out there, and I try to work, and I come off the court I feel like it’s been a dream. It’s a dream for me to be doing this.
”It’s all surprising to me.” — AFP
