The Hindu : Serena, Roddick advance

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 03, 2004

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Serena, Roddick advance

KEY BISCAYNE, APRIL 2. Playing her first tournament since July, Serena Williams advanced her comeback into the final of the Nasdaq-100 Open tennis by beating Eleni Daniilidou of Greece 6-4, 6-4 on Thursday.

U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick and fellow American Vince Spadea advanced to the semifinals. The No. 2-seeded Roddick came from behind twice and won the final four games to beat No. 5 Carlos Moya 5-7, 6-2, 7-5.

``I feel like I've cheesed through a couple of matches this week,'' Roddick said. ``Hopefully we can make something of it this weekend.''

The unseeded Spadea, who won his first career title last month in Scottsdale, Arizona, at age 29, beat No. 20 Agustin Calleri of Argentina 7-5, 6-1.

Williams smacked 28 winners, and when she hit back-to-back aces of 164 and 186 kph (102 and 116 mph) in one game, Daniilidou handed her racket to a ball boy in mock surrender. He quickly gave it back.

``I couldn't even see where she was serving,'' said Daniilidou, who was nearly hit in the face by one serve. ``She serves unbelievable. Today I think it was the key.''

Williams improved to 5-0 in her first tournament since undergoing knee surgery last July after winning her sixth Grand Slam title at Wimbledon. She has won 17 consecutive matches at Key Biscayne, including the title the past two years.

Making her return less daunting has been the absence from the field of the five top-ranked women, including No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne, who decided to skip the tournament. Dementieva upset No. 2-seeded Venus Williams 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (3) on Wednesday to prevent the first all-Williams final since Serena beat her older sister at Wimbledon last year.

Against Daniilidou, Williams raced to quick leads in each set but still showed occasional rust. She was broken while serving for each set and committed 25 unforced errors.

Williams also displayed lots of variety in her shot making. On one point she hit a 178 kph (111 mph) serve, an overhead and a running forehand crosscourt winner. She won a point-blank exchange with Daniilidou at the net.

Her best shot was her serve. Williams hit seven aces, with Daniilidou ducking out of the way of one.

``I'm surprised by my serve,'' Williams said. ``It just comes out. It's perfect.''

When Williams ripped a forehand crosscourt winner to reach match point, she brandished a fist and growled. Daniilidou then sent a forehand wide to give the victory to Williams, who hopped in jubilation.

Daniilidou, seeded 25th, won every set in her first five matches and scored a third-round upset over Jennifer Capriati, the runner-up the past three years. But she was repeatedly jammed by Williams' powerful strokes.

Moya had the edge through most of his match against Roddick and served for a berth in the semifinal at 5-4 in the final set. The Spaniard double-faulted and hit three errant forehands to lose the game.

``One of the worst games I ever played,'' Moya said. ``Probably I got tight.''

Roddick erased a break point in the next game with a spectacular forehand crosscourt winner, and then broke again in the final game, closing out the victory with an overhead slam.

``He was the better player pretty much all day,'' Roddick said. ``Lucky for me, I think he just got a little tight at the end. He gave me a gift of a game. I would love to claim all credit for it, but that's not the case.''

Indian challenge ends

Leander Paes and his Czech partner David Rikl bowed out of the men's double's quarterfinals bringing an end to the Indian challenge.

The seventh seed Indo-Czech pair lost to the third seeds Jonas Bjorkman of Sewden and Todd Woodbridge of Australia 7-5, 2-6, 3-6.

Mahesh Bhupathi and Max Mirnyi had bowed out of the tournament after losing 6-7 (3/7) 5-7 Arnault Clement and Sebastian Grosjean of France in the second round yesterday.

The results:

Men quarterfinals: Andy Roddick bt Carlos Moya 5-7, 6-2, 7-5. Vince Spadea bt Agustin Calleri 7-5, 6-1.

Women semifinals: Serena Williams bt Eleni Daniilidou 6-4, 6-4. Elena Dementieva bt Nadia Petrova 6-4, 6-2.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Sport