All-Williams Final Averted as Venus Doesn't Rise

Posted on April 2, 2004

Stop the presses in Miami -- the presses rolling out those Sunday singles final programs declaring "Williams vs. Williams." Serena may yet be there, but you won't see Venus, who Wednesday was outlasted by No. 5 seed Elena Dementieva 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(3).

In typical Williams sister fashion, Venus attributed the loss to poor play on her part and "treeing" on the part of her opponent.

"I definitely felt like I could play better," Venus said. "I definitely felt like she played some of her best tennis. That was really good for her."

Venus lost the first set behind a shaky serve, then in the second set rolled her right foot near the end but still extended the match to a third set. Venus served at 5-3 three in the third, but uncharacteristically choked, tossing in four (4) doubles faults, including three in a row to drop serve. She also held a match point at 6-5, then committed five unforced errors in the tiebreaker to hand the Russian the win.

A potential locker room throw-down arose when Venus was told that Dementieva said "After the medical break, I was thinking she was a good actress because she was moving so much better than before." Venus told the media, "Maybe I should talk to her. I clearly twisted my ankle and I had issues there. If that's the way she feels, that's fine. These days, in order to be a champ and to be a winner, you have to play under all circumstances and I think that's what I did."

To her credit, Venus failed to use the injury to her foot as an excuse in her press conference, stressing that when you stay on court you should be ready to perform.

In her post-match conference, Dementieva levied another shot as Venus possibly faking her injury.

"I think she did everything by the rules, you know. She can do it," the Russian said. "I'm not sure that she has something or not, I can't even know, you know? But she did everything by the rules, so I was, you know, I was trying to continue to play. That's it."

In the second quarterfinal match Wednesday, No. 8 seed Nadia Petrova eased by No. 21 Nathalie Dechy 6-2, 6-2.

Thursday's tennis matches will be the women's semis in (1)Serena vs. (25)Daniilidou, and (8)Petrova vs. (5)Dementieva in an all-Russian. Doubles matches on will be Molik/Serna vs. (4)Navratilova/Raymond, (3)Huber/Sugiyama vs. China's Li/Sun, and China's Yan/Zheng vs. (2)Kuznetsova/Likhovtseva.

Seeds Coria, Gonzo Advance into Semifinals at Tennis Masters Miami

The seedings held in the two men's Miami quarterfinal matches Wednesday, with No. 3 Guillermo Coria easing past an agitated Nicolas Kiefer 6-3, 6-3, and No. 21 Fernando "Gonzo" Gonzalez outlasting Andrei Pavel 6-7(5), 6-3, 6-4.

"I had big expectations," Kiefer said. "I mean, I played so far a good tournament. Also, I'm long time in the States. I had many good wins, also a lot of confidence. I went out there, started very good. But then I had one, two bad service games. He played very smart game today. I didn't get so many chances. I was expecting to get more chances but, as I said, he played very good game."

Gonzo hung on for the comeback after losing the first set.

"It was a very tough day for me," Gonzo said. "It was a little bit windy, only to one side but I was playing really good. The first set took an hour and I think he got tired and then I won (seven) games in a row and it was perfect for me. I was down a set and a break up and then in 15 minutes I was up a break in the third set. I was much more relaxed and I started to serve better and play my best tennis."

Today's QF match-ups are (2)Roddick vs. (5)Moya (A-Rod leads meetings 2-0), and (20)Calleri vs. Spadea (Argentine leads 2-1). The doubles features (1)Bryan brothers vs. (6)Damm/Suk, (5)Knowles/Nestor vs. Frenchmen Clement/Grosjean, and (7)Paes/Rikl vs. (3)Bjorkman/Woodbridge.

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NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
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