Davenport Manages Molik 9-7 in the Third at Australian Open

Two stunning three-set women's quarterfinals Wednesday at the Australian Open gave fans something to shout about on Australian Day, featuring a homegrown talent coming within points of upsetting the world No. 1.

No. 10-seeded Australian Alicia Molik stretched Lindsay Davenport to overtime in the brutal Melbourne heat before finally succumbing 6-4, 4-6, 9-7. Davenport served for the match at 5-4 in the third but could not close, and finally broke at 7-7 with some unforced errors from the Australian.

"There were a lot of ups and downs out here," Davenport said. "I'm not sure how I'm standing here. I felt I was really lucky today -- after failing to finish it off at 5-4. She had a lot of momentum and I'm not sure exactly how I was able to get it back."

Davenport will face No. 19 seed Nathalie Dechy in the semifinals after the Frenchwoman outlasted No. 12 Patty Schnyder 5-7, 6-1, 7-5 in the other quarterfinal Wednesday.

The Swiss Schnyder was trying to match her semifinal effort from last year, but converted only one of nine break opportunities.

"Of course I was tired at the end, but I was not close to like, yeah, cramping or just tired," said a heat-induced babbling Schnyder after the match. "I could not really move anymore, really fast anymore. So that's -- I could, yeah. So that's why I could not go for the shots, because I didn't see it early enough and I couldn't really move fast to the ball."

Davenport's last slam title came at the Australian Open in 2000, with six slam semifinal losses since that time. Molik, trying to end a 27-year Aussie title drought in Melbourne, was appearing in her first slam quarterfinal and will debut in the Top 10 on the WTA Rankings following the event.

"The bottom line is I probably had a chance to win out there," Molik said. "Today is the one that got away. It's a game of numbers, and I've won 38 out of the last 42 matches, so I can't be too disappointed. I gave it my best -- it was a battle out there -- but she just got me again."

Winners in the women's doubles semifinals were (6) Svetlana Kuznetsova/Molik (d. Russians (7) Myskina/Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva), and (15) Davenport/Corina Morariu (d. unseeded Czechs G.Navratilova/Pastikova).

On court Thursday are the women's singles semifinals in (4) Sharapova vs. (7) Serena (Russian leads meetings 2-1, winning the last two), and (1) Davenport vs. (19) Dechy (Davenport leads 5-0).

Dechy on facing Davenport: "I play her in Sydney last week and I was already playing well, did a great match, lose against her. So I think from two weeks ago I improved. And it's such a great lady and such a great champion that I'm really happy to play against her in semifinal."