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| 10 April 2005 | Sunday | 30 Safar 1426 |
Davenport outguns Venus Williams
It proved to be a bad day for the Williams sisters as Serena was forced to retire from her quarterfinal against Italian 12th seed Silvia Farina Elia with a sprained ankle.
Following Thursday’s rain-affected programme, several players were required to play twice and Davenport showed her battling qualities as she recovered to beat Venus.
However, most of the drama surrounded Serena.
With a television crew watching her every move for a reality show about the sisters, Serena outslugged France’s Mary Pierce 7-6 6-4 in a third-round encounter, rallying from 5-1 down to win the first-set tiebreaker before snatching the second thanks to a single break of serve.
Returning to action for their last four encounter in the night session, Farina Elia’s variety and clever use of angles often had Serena screaming at the sky.
The Italian held two set points when serving at 5-4, but Serena fought back and broke twice to take the opener 7-5.
Farina Elia led 3-0 in the second but Serena rallied again to lead 4-3 and looked on course for victory, only to suffer a sprained left ankle chasing a ball when leading 5-4.
After treatment, Serena played on and even held three match points in the tiebreak but Farina Elia hit back to level and the American duly retired.
Earlier, Davenport had to dig deep to beat Venus, having been blown away in the first set.
For 25 minutes it was vintage Venus, but as the match wore on so the mistakes increased, and Davenport took advantage to set up a clash with seventh seed Nadia Petrova of Russia, who beat 15th seed Shinobu Asagoe of Japan 6-0 0-6 6-2.
Asagoe had earlier caused the biggest upset of the event as she shocked third seed and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina of Russia 7-6 7-6.
Virginie Razzano of France continued her giant-killing run, following up her second-round win over fourth seed Alicia Molik with two more victories over seeded players.
The world number 54 ousted 13th seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4 6-7 7-5 and then stunned sixth seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-4 6-4 to set up a semifinal against Farina Elia.
Results: (quarterfinals): Lindsay Davenport bt Venus Williams 1-6 6-3 6-4; Nadia Petrova bt Shinobu Asagoe 6-0 0-6 6-2; Virginie Razzano bt Vera Zvonareva 6-4 6-4; Silvia Farina Elia bt Serena Williams 5-7 7-6 RET Round 3 on Friday Venus Williams bt Marta Domachowska 3-6 6-4 6-2; Shinobu Asagoe bt Anastasia Myskina 7-6(5) 7-6(7); Nadia Petrova bt Jelena Jankovic 6-3 7-6(5); Virginie Razzano bt Ai Sugiyama 6-4 6-7(3) 7-5; Silvia Farina Elia bt Patty Schnyder 4-6 6-1 6-4; Serena Williams bt Mary Pierce 7-6(5) 6-4.—Reuters
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