It is quarterfinal day at the 2002 State Farm's Women's Tennis Classic. The seeds have pretty much held to
form with only #5 Lisa Raymond and #4 Meghann Shaughnessy not making it to the final eight.
Shaughnessy, last year's finalist, lost in the second round last night to France's Nathalie Dechy.
Shaughnessy remains winless against Dechy after five career meetings.
Serena William (#3) vs. Nicole Pratt (Quarters)
Head to Head: Williams leads series 3-0 (Last Meeting: 2001Los Angeles, R16, 6-3, 6-3)
Today, Serena Williams was looking to improve on her first match at the State Farm. Williams dubbed her
second round win against Russian qualifier, Alina Jidkova, a "2 out of 10" despite a fairly convincing 6-3,
6-3 result. Williams unashamedly admitted to never seeing Jidkova prior to their match on Wednesday.
Fortunately, such was not the case with today's opponent, Australian Nicole Pratt. This was their fourth
meeting dating back to the 1998 US Open, a three-set Williams victory. The 28-year old Pratt is just now
having the best results of her 13-year career. She is currently at a career high rank of #41. Pratt had at
least one fan in the stands, who waved the Australian flag and did a solo "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie" cheer
much to the delight of the daytime crowd.
Perhaps sensing a little tentativeness in Williams (or having read up on Williams's second round quotes),
Pratt won the coin toss and elected to receive. Williams lost the first two points on serve but battled back,
winning the next four points to hold. Pratt was not so lucky. She won only one point on her first service
game and fell down the early break. Williams went down 0-30 in her next service game before duplicating
her feat in the first game to hold. Pratt held to get on the scoreboard at 3-1. Williams's service problems
continued in the fifth game and this time around those problems crept into her groundstrokes. Three
forehand errors and a double-fault allowed Pratt to get back on serve at 3-2. The break-fest continued on
with Williams regaining the lead at 4-2. Williams finally had an easy service game (won at love) in the
seventh game and broke Pratt with a stretch backhand stab volley in the next game to take the set 6-2 in 24
minutes. The power of Williams certainly seemed to be the decisive factor in the first set, often pinning
Pratt a couple of feet behind the baseline.
Serena opened the second set with an error-free first game and impressive serving, including a 109-mph
ace. This was topped in the third game where Williams served three aces, including one at a speedy 111-
mph. Despite the bombs landing on her side of the court, Pratt was becoming more comfortable in
handling Williams's power. Her fortitude paid off as Williams started to spray more groundstrokes. In the
fifth game, Pratt played a beautiful point - lobbing Williams and then dinking a drop shot which Williams
was unable to get to. That point set up the first break of the second set when Williams sent a backhand
wide to give Pratt a 3-2 lead. With Williams swaying between brilliant and sloppy play, it was hard to
predict where this match would next go. However, Williams stepped it up each time she fell behind in the
match. A couple of Williams winners and a Pratt double fault evened the match at 4-4. The set appeared
headed to a tiebreak but Williams increased the power as well as the decibel level, determined to end the
match sooner than that. A nervous double fault by Pratt in the twelfth game earned Williams a break point.
A forehand winner gave Williams the set and the match - 6-2, 7-5 in 1 hour and 10 minutes.
At the post-match news conference, Serena was blankly staring into space before the first question was
asked. When asked if she was ready, she mumbled that "she lost it there for moment." Apparently the
noon time match, was a bit early in the day for Williams who admitted, since returning from Australia, has
has had trouble getting out of bed before 1pm. The subdued Serena upped her performance today from a 2
to a still disappointing 3 on the 10-point scale, but added that her ankle was feeling fine and that she was
tempted to take the tape off.
As the press conference continued, Williams came more to life and started to smile and laugh more
especially as questions turned to off-court activities. Williams admitted to staying in her hotel room far too
much but was proud that she has already read five (at least those that she can count) books this year. She is
currently reading James Patterson's "First To Die" and was enthralled with a Sidney Sheldon novel that she
read in one four-hour sitting. The folks at Barnes & Noble would be happy to know that Serena can spend
hours in their stores. On her way out of the press conference, Williams still seem enthralled with the book
conversation, telling a WTA staff member about the 10%-off B&N reader card. So despite winning over
$2.1 million in prize money alone last year, it is perhaps nice to know that even Serena Williams likes a
bargain.
Williams moves into the semifinals and gets a nice jump on her opponent - the winner of Martina Hingis
vs. Daja Bedanova who do not play until this evening..