Roddick, Hewitt, Davenport Into Semifinals at Australian Open

Roddick will now face Aussie hero Lleyton Hewitt, who in a match that ended near midnight in Melbourne outlasted David Nalbandian 10-8 in the fifth set, recovering after blowing a two-set lead to gain his first Australian Open semifinal.

Roddick said he was ready to face the Aussie crowd and Hewitt..

"The way I see that now is that I've been through probably the worst crowd I'll ever be through with what we did in Spain," Roddick said. "I'm sure it will be rowdy. I don't expect anybody to be cheering for me so it's a little bit easier when you know going in what the circumstances might be."

Winners in men's doubles quarterfinal action were (5) Wayne Black/Kevin Ullyett (d. (3) Bhupathi/Woodbridge), and (4) Jonas Bjorkman/Max "The Beast" Mirnyi (d. two-time defending champs (6) Llodra/Fabrice "The Original Magician" Santoro).

On tap for Thursday is the first men's semifinal in (1) Federer vs. (4) Safin in a rematch of last year's final (Fed leads the career meetings 6-1, but each of the last three have included at least one tiebreak), and the doubles semis in the unseeded Austrian/German combo of Jurgen "Tuna" Melzer/Waske vs. Zimbabwe's (5) Black/Ullyett, and the Swede/Belarus pairing of (4) Bjorkman/The Beast vs. Americans (2) the Bryan brothers.


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."

TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
All four men's semifinalists at the Aussie Open are grand slam champs, and all four are current or former No. 1s...Lleyton Hewitt has won nine of last 10 five-setters...The Top 4 seeds at the Aussie Open are into semis for the first time at a slam since 1995 Wimbledon...Lindsay Davenport reached her third straight slam semifinal after Alicia Molik converted only one of 12 break point chances in the third set...The 36 games Davenport/Molik played was the most on the women's side thus far...In her 35th career slam, Nathalie Dechy has reached her first major semifinal...The number of people watching Dechy-Schnyder on Margaret Court was three. Okay, maybe four...Following the Alicia Molik match, the Australian Open held a special 20-minute ceremony honoring their greats. Rafter, Newk, Rosewall and others made the appearance, but not Lleyton Hewitt even though he was on site practicing. Spending 20 minutes in a ceremony some four hours before he takes the court was apparently asking too much...Rene Stauffer, who writes for the Tages-Anzeiger newspaper, on the Martina Hingis comeback: "This tournament (WTA Pattaya, Thailand in February) is a good way to see if she's still keen and competitive at a higher level. She is only 24, she is still hungry and she knows she is still a very good player. I think that's the driving force behind all this...She may be thinking that the Top 10 is weaker than it really is. Lindsay Davenport is world No. 1 and Martina used to beat her quite easily. But there are all the Russian players and they have a tremendous quality of play. Martina might find it extremely difficult to break into the Top 10 again."...Roger Federer, being interviewed on-court by Jim Courier, pressed for who he favored in the Lleyton Hewitt-David Nalbandian match: "I pick uh.....I pick...Lleyton -- I want to live tonight, so."...Amelie Mauresmo says the Martina Hingis comeback will stall quickly if she does not up her training regimen: "I believe she stopped playing because she felt she was no longer physically able to compete. If she has not done a lot of work in this area, she won't be able to live with the best players." Remember that it was Mauresmo that the sound-bite-friendly Swiss called "half a man."...This morning an X-staff member woke up early (read: before noon), saw the Hewitt-Nalbandian match was still being played, just for fun flipped on ESPN2, and saw they were showing a bass fishing news show called BassCenter (like SportsCenter). We kid you not...U.S. Davis Cup captain Patrick McEnroe says Taylor Dent has the "inside track" on the No. 2 singles spot for the upcoming match against Croatia...The Guardian on Tim Henman: "Much of what Henman says these days reflects the psycho-babble of his coach, Paul Annacone, a perfectly nice man whose reputation rests on him having been in the corner of Pete Sampras for a number of years. Sampras no more needed coaching than a hen needs tips on how to lay an egg. Nevertheless, the fact that Henman reached the semifinals of both the French and US Opens last year seems to suggest that Annacone's powers are greater than those of David Felgate and Larry Stefanki, his previous coaches. But Henman is no Sampras and the Annacone-influenced decision not to play in a pre-Australian Open tournament, other than the Kooyong exhibition, left Henman under-prepared and lacking a competitive edge. He refused to blame the defeat on any physical problems, although it was clear to everybody that either his back or his right shoulder, or both, was affecting his play and, more importantly, his state of mind, despite his denial. He moved like an old man, which he is fast becoming in sporting terms."