Davenport To Meet France’s Mauresmo In Semifinals
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WIMBLEDON, England – They are two hard-luck stories – one a warm, cheerful woman with an uncanny tendency to collapse under pressure, the other a talkative Grand Slam champion recently overcome by the uncertain fate of her sick mother.
If ever two players were deserving of a good run at Wimbledon, Amelie Mauresmo and Anastasia Myskina certainly would top the list. But the fun had to end yesterday for one of them, and it was clear from the start which one it would be.
Mauresmo jumped all over Myskina from the outset, serving and volleying and charging the net whenever the moment seemed right. It was a 6-3, 6-4 Wimbledon rout of old, with Martina Navratilova as the model. Mauresmo approached 52 times, 24 of them following her serve. She won 38 of those points.
Myskina, who had played more than nine hours in her first four matches, has not the power or the serve to stay in a grass-court battle against someone as versatile and capable as Mauresmo. But she leaves Wimbledon happy. Her mother, who was suffering from cancer, has regained her health, and Myskina has recovered from an awful stretch of tennis – including a first-round loss at the French Open, where she was the defending champion. She could have lost three of the four matches she won during this tournament, yet she persevered.
As for Mauresmo, she now prepares for her fourth Grand Slam semifinal and third at Wimbledon. While Myskina was easy to attack, her next opponent, Lindsay Davenport, owns some of the best artillery in the game. Mauresmo will undoubtedly approach, but she should be prepared to see more passing shots fly by.
“I think the way the courts are, you have to really mix it up – come in but also stay back,” Mauresmo said. “You really have to choose the right ball.”
Davenport did not play in rarified air yesterday, as she did in her victory over Kim Clijsters a day earlier. When playing two tough matches on consecutive days, Davenport said she expects to play a few loose points.
“I figured I’d be a little bit tired,” she said after her 7-6 (1), 6-3 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova. “But I thought I handled it pretty well.”
Davenport sports a 10-3 career record over Mauresmo. Mauresmo last beat Davenport in Sydney in 2000 at a tuneup to the Australian Open.
