Venus Williams Through to Open Semis

N E W  Y O R K, Sept. 6, 2000 -- Venus Williams hit bottom, so to speak, when shedouble-faulted three times in one game, whiffed at an overhead,stomped to her chair, missed the seat and plopped to the court.

The sheer indignity of it all only compounded the frustrationshe felt throughout her match Tuesday against a relentlesslynet-charging Nathalie Tauziat.

Yet even on her worst day, Williams still was good enough towin, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, and extend her tour-leading streak to 24matches as she moved into the semifinals of the U.S. Open.

Will Face Hingis

Williams, seeded No. 3, will have to play far better to beat No.1 Martina Hingis on Thursday.

Hingis knocked out Williams in the semis last year before losingto Serena Williams in the title match, and has been the mostdominant woman in the tournament so far this year. She reached thesemis Tuesday night with a 6-0, 7-5 rout of No. 6 Monica Seles, andhas yielded only 15 games in five matches without dropping a set.

“At Wimbledon, I lost to Venus, so I’d like to turn itaround,” Hingis said. “She’s obviously very confident going intothese matches. Even if she’s not playing at her best, she stillwins them. Nobody’s going to ask you afterward how you play. You’vejust got to win the tournament.”

Williams had not lost a set in the tournament, and had droppedonly three sets in her winning streak. But after a listless firstset against Tauziat, and a sleepwalking second set filled withunforced errors, she powered up her serve and groundstrokes a notchto wear down the small but spirited Frenchwoman.

‘A Tag-Team Wrestling Match’

“You walk off against her and you don’t have the impression youplayed a tennis match,” Tauziat said. “You feel as if you’ve beenin a tag-team wrestling match or a boxing bout, but not tennis. Shejust bangs away. It’s in, it’s out, it’s a double-fault, it’s anace. You just never know what’s coming.”

Half the time, Williams also didn’t know what was coming off herracket as she sprayed her serves in sundry directions and whackedgroundstrokes wildly. She had seven aces and 10 double-faults. Shewas too aggressive or too tame, sometimes reaching for balls thatwould have flown long, or hitting shots safely down the middle.

“A lot of times I was rushing when I really could have justtaken my time and hit some nice passing shots or some lobs,” shesaid. “I never get upset when I’m playing, but today ... it wasvery strange.

“I thought I had quit playing tennis like that. It’s been alittle while since I played a match like that. I can’t accept thesethings.”

She had not played so badly in any other match during herwinning streak from Wimbledon to here, she said, and had not playeda worse set during that stretch than the second one againstTauziat.

Williams didn’t blame her problems on the gusting wind or thefatigue of playing day and night for the past four days because ofthe rain delays and her singles and doubles schedule with hersister, Serena. Rather, she chalked it up to just one of those daysbest forgotten.

Her frustration was epitomized by her misadventure with herchair after she was broken on serve in the third set. She had takencontrol of the set by sweeping the first four games but then cameunglued again, double-faulting three times, completely missing theball on an overhead swing, and netting a backhand at break point.

Temper Tantrum

Pouting and stomping her feet, she marched to the sideline onthe changeover, missed the seat as badly as she had missed theoverhead, and fell awkwardly. Tauziat and spectators laughed, butWilliams didn’t see any humor in it.

“I was just angry,” she said. “I just couldn’t see.”

But when that moment of blind rage passed, Williams recoveredher poise enough to break the tiring Tauziat one more time andclose out the match with only two unforced errors in the last twogames.

“Finally, physical ability was the decisive factor,” Tauziatsaid, “because right at the end I hit volleys that nobody elsewould have got to, and Venus was there all the time.”

But Tauziat also thought she had exposed Williams’ vulnerabilitya bit.

“I think if she (is to) win the tournament, she needs toimprove her level,” she said. “I don’t think she is going to winif she plays like this.”

Norman Stunned

In men’s matches, No. 14 Nicolas Kiefer knocked off No. 3 MagnusNorman 6-7 (3), 6-1, 6-3 to set up a quarterfinal match against No.6 Marat Safin, a 6-1, 6-2, 6-2 victor over Juan Carlos Ferrero.

Unseeded Swede Thomas Johansson also reached the quarters,beating Wayne Arthurs 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3, 6-4, and will play ToddMartin, a 6-7 (3), 6-7 (7), 6-1, 7-6 (6), 6-2 winner over Spain’sCarlos Moya in a 4-hour, 17-minute night match that ended at 1:22a.m.

“I feel terrible, but I feel great,” said Martin, who smashedhis racket on the court after the final point, then ran around thestadium slapping hands with fans and hugging friends as if he hadjust won the title.

Martin, who saved 17 of 18 break points and served 24 aces, wona similar five-setter a year ago en route to the final, where helost to Andre Agassi.

Norman’s loss left No. 4 Pete Sampras as the highest seedremaining on the men’s side of the Open draw. The No. 1 Agassi andNo. 2 Gustavo Kuerten were eliminated in the first three days ofthe season’s final Grand Slam event. No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov alsodeparted in the first week.

Norman had courted trouble two days ago when he dropped thefirst two sets but battled back to defeat Max Mirnyi in arain-delayed match that went from day to night at the NationalTennis Center.

After losing the first set this time, Norman managed to win thetiebreaker in the second. But Kiefer dominated after that, takingadvantage of 59 unforced errors that kept Norman in trouble.

It was a disappointing ending for Norman, who could have takenover the No. 1 spot in the ATP Champions Race by reaching thesemifinals. Enjoying the finest year of his career, he came to theOpen with 58 wins this year, more than any other player on theTour.

Kiefer seemed unimpressed. The German, who has never lost around-of-16 match in a Grand Slam tournament, took charge quickly.It was a reminder of the way he played at the start of the year,when he won 14 of his first 17 matches, all on hardcourts.

During that run, he reached the quarters of the Australian Open.Now he’s back in another Grand Slam quarterfinal, again onhardcourts.