Williams Sisters Make Quarterfinals in Doubles
S Y D N E Y, Australia, Sept. 23 -- Venus and Serena Williams came from behind to forge ahead at the Olympics.
The sisters recovered from a slow start today to reach thequarterfinals in doubles, beating Elena Likhovtseva and AnastasiaMyskina of Russia 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Before a capacity crowd of 4,000 on court 1, the sisters eachlost their serve in the opening set, and Serena struggled at thenet. But they took advantage of early service breaks in each of thelast two sets for the victory.
“We’ve been down a set a lot,” Serena said. “We never worry. We stay calm out there and keep ourselves pumped up.”
Norman Loses
The Williams sisters, who have three Grand Slam doubles titles,won for the 30th time in their past 31 matches.
“We’ve played pretty satisfactorily,” Venus said. “We canimprove our level, though. Everyone is coming out with their besttennis.”
In men’s third-round play, No. 3-seeded Magnus Norman lost toFrenchman Arnaud Di Pasquale 7-6 (4), 7-6 (2). The upset left onlyfive seeded men in the draw, including No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten, whobeat Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia 7-6 (2), 6-3.
Venus Williams puts her 29-match winning streak on the lineSunday (Saturday night EDT) in the quarterfinals of singles againstAranxta Sanchez-Vicario, the last player to beat her. That was atthe French Open, before Williams began a run that has includedtitles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Australian Jelena Dokic delighted a noisy center court crowd bybeating wildcard Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay 7-6 (5), 7-5.
Tenth-seeded Elena Dementieva of Russia eliminated KarinaHabsudova of Slovakia 6-2, 6-1. Her opponent in the quarterfinalswill be No. 12 Barbara Schett of Austria, who rallied past JulieHalard-Decugis of France 2-6, 6-2, 6-1.
In other men’s play, No. 8 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain beatDaniel Nestor of Canada 7-6 (4), 6-3.
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