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by Alex Dimitrov After a shocking upset over world # 3 Jennifer Capriati, Jelena Dokic came out Saturday afternoon to take on surprise semifinalist Anna Kournikova. The Russian, who has played five tough matches in a row this week, looked tired from the start. Neither player's serve seemed to be a factor as they consecutively broke each other early on in the first set. Dokic held to go up 4-3 by consistently pinpointing her flat strokes down the line. Kournikova returned the favor the next game by holding at love. The match grew more intense as Dokic broke Kournikova at 6-5 forcing the first set into a tie-break. Kournikova showed off some of her best tennis in the tie-break by putting in killer spin serves and several off pace angled forehands. She took the first 7-6 (8-6), however, as she would later tell the press, she was tired even after winning the set. Dokic quickly went up 2-0 in the second set thanks to a few unforced errors by Kournikova. In her press conference Anna mentioned that she did not feel she was moving her feet well enough to set up for her shots early on in the second. Nevertheless, Kournikova cameback to lead 5-4 making it appear that she would pull off yet another amazing victory. As she pumped her fist after attaining two match points on Dokic's serve, Kournikova seemed to physically shut down. Dokic hit two great serves to get out of trouble and held for 5-5. The second set, like the first, would be decided in a tie-break. This time, however, Dokic took the lead early and closed it out 7-2. Kournikova looked as if she had nothing left to give in the third set, which Dokic won at love. It wasn't as if Anna tanked or didn't try to stay in the match -- she simply ran out of steam and understandably so. "In the third set I was really, obviously tired," said Anna. "In general I played really well. I'm just really happy it's over." Kournikova told the press of her plans to go home to Miami and rest before heading out to Montreal for her next tournament. Overall she was very pleased with her week and didn't seem to be too disappointed. Despite the loss, this week has been a huge stepping stone for Kournikova's career. After a dismal seven months (having lost in the first round of all the Grand Slams), the last two weeks have been very much like a rebirth for Kournikova. Though she has had a few exceptional tournament results in her career dating back to a Round of 16 showing at the US Open in 1996, Anna has never put together a truly successful season. If her performance in San Diego is any indication, that's soon to change. The buzz of the day was clearly the evening matchup between Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams. It had been a year since they last played and it would be Davenport's first test and indicator of where she was and where she needed to be in order to start playing slammin' tennis once again. However, tonight it would be father Richard Williams who did the talking rather than Venus's racquet. I sat just a few seats from Richard, down near the photographer's pit. The match started with a spectacular game by Venus Williams in which she broke Davenport by hitting some incredibly sharp returns. As the match went on, however, Richard became more and more vocal. At first he was giving Venus the usual encouragement by yelling out "Come on V," or "It's yo house Venus." After a few games, though, Richard started getting down right nasty. First he remarked "That should have been a code violation," after Lindsay threw her raquet in disgust. A few points later a fan yelled out "Lift your game Lindsay," to which he replied, "She can't!" At that point Venus had already taken the first set easily 6-2. As Davenport ran to her chair to switch racquets between points, Richard made yet another uncalled for comment. "She's going home?" he rudely asked. He also seemed to be bothered by the pro-Davenport crowd, which was in return bothered by his tasteless commentary. Richard was outrageous to the point that between games during the second set he yelled out "Go Venus! If you win this game this gentleman will buy me a drink," referring to the stranger sitting next to him. Despite her father's insane behavior, Venus demolished Davenport 6-2 6-1 in what wasn't as bad of a match as the score indicated. "It was one of those days where nothing felt great," said Lindsay. "It happened so fast it just kept getting worse like a nightmare." "If I was a fan I would have wanted a better match too," she continued. When informed by the press about Richard's "go home" comment during the match, Davenport laughed it off as usual. Though she had just come back to the tour after a long lay off, she was used to Richard's antics. In her press conference, Venus Williams said she thought Lindsay had played well. "It was a good match, but this time last year she was playing better," said Williams. She talked of her own comeback back in 2000 and how hard it was to comeback mentally and physically. When asked about Serena and the alleged rumors of her partying in LA with celebrities, and injuring herself before Manhattan Beach Venus said, "There's so many rumors, I'd have to call and confirm." Once again despite all the rumors and the controversy created by her father, Venus Williams prevailed. And for that alone she deserves an enormous amount of credit. |