A pumped-up Nicolas Kiefer and an ice-cool Amelie Mauresmo drove vastly different roads to park themselves in the Australian Open semifinals on Wednesday.
The fiery Kiefer was on court for four hours and 48 minutes against Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, the longest match here in 15 years, while Mauersmo was back in the dressing room in less than an hour against Switzerland’s Patty Schnyder.
The 21st seeded Kiefer won a volatile quarterfinal, 6-3, 0-6, 6-4, 6-7 (1/7), 8-6, and was given two code violations for verbal abuse after raging at the Brazilian chair umpire Carlos Bernardes over disputed line calls.
But he held his nerve for the biggest win of his career, making a Grand Slam semi-final for the first time on his 35th attempt.
His reward is a showdown against world number one Roger Federer or Russian fifth seed Nikolay Davydenko, who play later Wednesday.
”There was so much pressure from so many quarters, it was a very close match,” said Kiefer, whose previous best Grand Slam campaign was the quarterfinals here in 2000.
”Some points were not so easy, there was so much tension on the court, but it was a great match, thanks to Seb.”
It was the longest match since Boris Becker and Omar Camporese played for five hours and 11min here in 1991, and was all the more gruelling for being played on another hot Melbourne day.
The match boiled over in the 12th game of the fifth set when Grosjean, seeded 25, called for the tournament supervisor after claiming Kiefer had thrown his racquet at him while he was attempting to retrieve the ball at 40-30 on his serve.
But the point stood for Kiefer, and he knuckled down to produce a memorable victory, but it wasn’t always pretty.
Kiefer, who has already been fined $5 000 for unsportmanlike conduct at the tournament, was also warned by the supervisor for an apparent audible obscenity.
”I didn’t mean to throw the racquet at him and I thought I’d lost the point anyway,” he said. ”Of course, I apologise but there were so many close calls out there and so much tension inside of me.”
In contrast to their heated match, Mauresmo and Schnyder were a total mismatch, with the Swiss seventh seed at a level below the muscular Frenchwoman, who prised 28 unforced errors from her opponent.
The win sets up a showdown with either second seed Kim Clijsters or comeback queen Martina Hingis, who play later in the day.
Mauresmo took the season-ending WTA Championships and has continued to build on that form, earning herself a crack at only her second final here as she attempts to break her Grand Slam duck.
She ran through the draw in 1999 only to be beaten in the final by Hingis.
”That’s what I wanted today, from the first point really making her play as much as I could, I did that very well at the beginning and felt my game was very effective,” Mauresmo said.
Schnyder, who made the quarters here last year and the semis in 2004, hadn’t dropped a set before meeting Mauresmo and but her game wilted in the heat, leaving her to dwell once again on her failure to reach a Grand Slam final.
The second women’s semi-final is between Maria Sharapova and Justine Henin-Hardenne, while giantkilling Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis takes on Argentine fourth seed David Nalbandian in the men’s draw. – AFP
