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Saturday, July 29, 2000 Semi-final -- Williams def. Kournikova 6-4, 7-5 Today the glamour queen took on the reigning Wimbledon champ in a highly anticipated semi-final. Anna Kournikova had been playing extremely well in her past 3 matches while Venus struggled a bit especially in her previous encounter against Amy Frazier. Many people anticipated a breakthrough tournament for Anna, but she must get past the powerful and confident Venus. The match started and immediately Anna proved to be no match for Venus. She was broken in the first game. And overwhelmed by Venus's fast deliveries she went down 0-2. Anna then won her next service game, but then venus went on a run to lead the set by 5-1. Then Anna surged a comeback attempt. She held to 2-5. Then, on Venus's serve, a forehand winner by Anna and a double fault by Venus led to a break. Then Anna would hold on to her next game with one backhand winner and two forehand winners. Now it was 4-5, Anna. Now, Venus has her second chance to serve out the first set. It is not likely that she will make the same mistake twice. However, there is a slimmer of hope for Anna because errors have definitely crept into Venus's game. As it turned out, 3 unforced errors by Anna made it an extremely easy game for Venus. Despite Anna's loss of the first set, there was definitely an increase in the competitive level of the match. She was putting up a fight now, and it showed in the second set. After being broken again by Venus, she was able to break back. They stayed on serve till 5-5. But that was when Venus said enough was enough. She broke Anna and served for the match. Final score 6-4, 7-5. During the second set, a scare came from the crowd. A man in a wheelchair tipped over and drew a gasp from the crowd. This was right when Venus was about to serve. She turned around to see what was going on and waited till the man got some assistance and got back on his seat. She continued playing brilliantly afterwards. In the post match interview, Anna was not disheartened at all. She was content about her good performance here. She admitted that she got into the match a little late and that made all the difference. There was some discontent with why she was forced to play the morning match especially since she just finished playing the night before. But overall, she was happy about picking up her game in the second set. And she reassured us that she is not intimidated by Venus at all. Doubles: Rubin/Testud def. Clijsters/Shaughnessy (6-4, 3-6, 6-3) Night Match Semifinals -- Lindsay Davenport def. Monica Seles Finally a night match that didn't feature Anna Kournikova. But it was just as exciting due to the level of tennis. In this match-up of the two beloved American players, the crowd found it hard to chose who to root for. The rowdiness of the crowd was gone, and they let the tennis do the talking. The first set was a close one. Monica managed to surge ahead 4-1 before Lindsay stringed along 4 straight games to get back on serve at 5-4. From there on it was 5 all. Then, Lindsay would run away with the first set 7-5. There is not much to say about the second set except it was great tennis. Both players stayed on serve till 6 all. However, Monica ran out of gas in the tiebreak. She went down early at 0-3 and failed to recover losing the tiebreak, the set, and the match 5-7, 6-7(2). Doubles: Black/Frazier def. Graham/Po (2-6, 6-2, 7-5) |