Womens Semis Today at Wimbledon; Top Women Unite Against Longer Slams
Posted on June 30, 2005
Federer, Hewitt, Roddick Into Wimbledon SemifinalsWorld No. 1 Roger Federer defeated No. 21 Fernando Gonzalez 7-5, 6-2, 7-6(2) Wednesday at Wimbledon, putting himself within two matches of raising the trophy at the All-England Club for the third consecutive year.
Noting the slow nature of the grasscourts this year at Wimbledon, the Swiss contested the Chilean largely from the back of the court, attempting to stay away from Gonzo's brutal forehand. Gonzalez displayed the same go-for-broke style of play he utilizes on all surfaces, blowing easy opportunities one minute then sending screaming winners from unlikely positions the next.
"It's always interesting to play against him because (you) sort of have to always weather the storm against him," Federer said. "He hits the ball with so much pace. Not much you can actually control in a match like this because he always takes the first swing at the ball."
While Gonzalez unloaded from the baseline, Federer was at his scrambling best.
"I'm feeling happy and satisfied with the way I played -- I knew he was going to be dangerous," Federer said, also sending a message to semifinal opponent Lleyton Hewitt. "I can beat any player with this level of play."
Hewitt delivered 15 aces to just 12 unforced errors over three sets in downing No. 26 Feliciano Lopez 7-5, 6-4, 7-6(2).
"I felt like I played pretty well all around today," Hewitt said. "My whole game came together well. You know, I needed it to. He's a dangerous opponent, especially on this surface with a big lefty serve. Yeah, I had to try to dictate play as much as possible and I was able to do that."
No. 2 Andy Roddick gutted out a five-setter against friend and frequent practice partner No. 9 Sebastien Grosjean 3-6, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3 to gain the semis, in the fifth set immediately going up a break over the Frenchman whose self-belief seemed shaken.
"I think everybody knew this was going to be a pretty tough match. Sebastien's not playing like this on grass by accident," Roddick said. "He's proven that he can play really, really well on this surface over the last couple years."
In the semifinals Roddick will face No. 12 seed Thomas Johansson, who steamrolled former finalist David Nalbandian 7-6(5), 6-2, 6-2.
"I was expecting maybe a tougher match today," said Johansson, looking to add to his slam hardware shelf which contains the lone Australian Open trophy. "But, as I said, I'm playing really well for the moment."
Johansson tagged the Argentine's serve consistently throughout the three sets, with Nalbandian winning only 55 percent of his first serve points. Johansson is the first Swedish semifinalist since Stefan Edberg in 1993.
In men's doubles play (4) Black/Ullyett of Zimbabwe defeated (5) Paes/Zimonjic in straights, and unseeded Germans Schuettler/Waske ousted (11) Suk/Vizner in straights.
On tap for Thursday are the men's doubles semifinals in Zimbabwe's (4) Black/Ullyett vs. Americans (2) Bryan/Bryan, and (1) Bjorkman/Mirnyi vs. unseeded Germans Schuettler/Waske.
Davenport, Sharapova Favored in Wimbledon Semis; Kuzy-Mo in Doubles Quarters
Unseeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Amelie Mauresmo advanced into the Wimbledon doubles quarterfinals on Wednesday with a 7-6(3), 6-2 win over fellow un-seeds Lisa McShea and Abigail Spears.
They will play again today at Wimbledon, hoping to join the three teams already waiting in the semifinals in (2) Black/Huber (d. (7) Hantuchova/Sugiyama in the quarters), (8) Groenefeld/M.Navratilova (d. Douchevina/Peer), and Aussies (11) Stewart/Stosur (d. (4) Petrova/Shaughnessy from a set down).
Scheduled for Thursday are the singles semifinals in (1) Davenport vs. (3) Mauresmo, and (2) Sharapova vs. (14) Venus, and in doubles a women's quarterfinal in the unseeded Kuznetsova/Mauresmo vs. Russians (5) Likhovtseva/Zvonareva.
The 1999 winner Davenport has won her last seven meetings with Mauresmo without dropping a set, so the Frenchwoman has nothing to lose in crashing the net to try and shake the American from her "tree." But don't be surprised to see a blow-out, with Mauresmo likely to engage the choke on her engine, realizing she is only two wins from that elusive career-first slam title.
Mauresmo has not dropped a set to reach this her third Wimbledon semi. Both Davenport and Mauresmo lost last year in the semis at the All-England Club.
Venus is 0-2 career versus Sharapova, with the two mirror-image players promising a one-dimensional match featuring slamming topspin drive off both sides, and little in the way of touch or well-conceived approaches and volleying.
Neither Venus or Sharapova have dropped a set in reaching the semifinals.
While Sharapova's defending run has been impressive, the world No. 2 is still defending a full slate of Wimbledon points from last year's victory and thus has no hope, even with a repeat title, of passing Davenport next Monday when the WTA Tour Rankings are released.
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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Andy Roddick has won his last two five-set matches. That comes after dropping five straight...Roger Federer joins only Boris Becker and Ivan Lendl in reaching five or more straight Grand Slam semifinals...Maria Sharapova has lost her serve just once, which is far fewer than anyone else, male or female, left in the tournament...Venus Williams has never lost in the semifinals at Wimbledon (4-0)...Andy Roddick didn't double fault once in five sets Wednesday...Roger Federer has won 34 straight grass matches and 19 straight at Wimbledon. Andy Roddick, meanwhile, has won 31 of 33 since the start of 2003 with grass losses only to Federer...Three of the remaining four semifinalists on the women's side have won Wimbledon...The Top 3 men's and women's seeds have advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 1995...If Yannick Noah got into the Hall of Fame, should Thomas Johansson?...Maria Sharapova has won 22 straight on grass and her last 12 at Wimbledon. She's also on a 10-match win streak...Lindsay Davenport has won five straight over Amelie Mauresmo and 8 of 11...In total, the four remaining semifinalists on the women's side have lost one set...A Williams sister has been in the final of Wimbledon for each year this decade..."The" Donald Young on getting advice from another lefty in John McEnroe: "He hit with me at the weekend and he's shown me how to serve on grass, playing a lot of slice and spin, and telling me how I need to bend my knees. I just wish I could have executed it better but I'm not yet confident on these (grass)courts. He's also been talking to me about the jump to the pros from the juniors and what I can do to make it, and how I need to act off court."...Congrats to Doug Robson writing for USA Today on the insightful story that pros think holding serve is more important than hitting aces at Wimbledon. Hard-hitting stuff...Thomas Johansson on coming back from his near-career-ending knee injury: "A lot of people, they did not think I was going to be able to come back. But I love to play tennis. And when you're away from the tennis, you miss it a lot. I was working really, really hard to come back and to be able to play tennis against all these young guys that just popped up when I was injured. I remember the first tournament I played after my injury was Adelaide. I was practicing for like five, six days. I did not win one set. I said to my coach, 'I think this is it.' Then it showed that I was playing -- I was practicing with a winner, the finalist, and a semifinalist all these four or five days. So apparently I was playing really well." Tommy the J. on the slow Wimbledon conditions: "It's pretty slow, I would say. You could easily stay back, which I do pretty much all the time. But you can also play serve and volley, of course. But I think it's a lot slower this year than it was maybe five years ago. I don't know if it's the court or if it's the balls. For the moment, I'm not complaining."...All four remaining semifinalists on the men's side are slam winners...Lleyton Hewitt on Wimbledon messing with the ATP Rankings to do their own seedings: "It's a bit strange playing in a semifinal, the No. 1 and 2 player in the world."...Roger Federer on being a big fan of Andy Roddick: "Andy, I think on the grass with his serve, you know, he's so dangerous. I like his humor on/off court. We get along well. We've had some good match over the years. I've got a great record against him. No matter what, I always enjoy playing against him. He's always fair. Especially in the States, he's very, very well-liked. It's good to have a great American now that Andre (Agassi), Pete (Sampras), (Michael) Chang, (Jim) Courier, they all sort of -- some are leaving and some are gone."...Nice f-bomb delivered on international TV by Andy Roddick after his match point over Sebastien Grosjean, nice role modeling...Todd Woodbridge, the all-time winningest doubles title winner, announced his surprise retirement Wednesday at Wimbledon, saying he was spurred on by the radical changes the ATP will make to doubles scoring (sets up to five, no-ad) after the US Open: "I'm very disappointed with our (ATP) council, so much so that I think they all should resign because they've gone ahead and made changes without even asking what the rest of the tennis world thinks. They've made a scoring system that doesn't even exist. It's not an approved system by the International Tennis Federation. They've gone and made a decision against what the players also wish. Even the top singles players are scratching their head at this decision. It's disappointing. Perhaps with that in mind I've also timed it pretty well."...World No. 1 Lindsay Davenport, Venus Williams, Corina Morariu and Mashona Washington will comprise the U.S. Fed Cup team that will head to Russia July 9-10 to face Elena Dementieva, Anastasia Myskina, Dinara Safina and Vera Douchevina. "Playing against the reigning Fed Cup champions on their home court is going to be a tough challenge for our team," said U.S. captain Zina Garrison. "We have a formidable team that is unified, squarely focused and committed to our quest to win the Fed Cup title." Maria Sharapova turned down an invitation to play for Russia, and Nadia Petrova and Svetlana Kuznetsova pulled from the tie citing injury. "Certainly, their absence is a big blow for us. Kuznetsova and especially Petrova, with her strong game on clay, could have helped us tremendously," Russian captain/dictator Shamil Tarpishchev told Reuters. "But that's life. In any case, we have home court advantage and we'll make life tough for the Americans." The other World Group semifinal will be France (Amelie Mauresmo, Nathalie Dechy, Mary Pierce, Virginie Razzano) vs. Spain (Nuria Llagostera Vives, Anabel Medina Garrigues, Arantxa Parra-Santonja, Maria Sanchez Lorenzo)...The top women players are uniting in an attempt to keep slam organizers from stretching the two-week events to 15 days: "I don't understand why the grand slams are talking about adding another day when the (WTA) Tour has been working hard to reduce injuries and lessen the stress on players by doing things like shortening the season," Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova told Reuters. "It's the players and the tournaments the week before the slams that would feel the impact of this idea." Lindsay Davenport agreed. "I'm not in favor of adding any more days. The grand slams have plenty of time to schedule all of the matches and it just seems to me that it is a financially motivated decision by the grand slams more than anything else." Amelie Mauresmo said: "It's not fair that the grand slams are talking about this idea without coming to some agreement with the players and the tournaments because we are the ones who should be involved the most because it affects us." And Venus Williams: "It's very disappointing that they are trying to conduct business in this manner. It's very underhanded and un-cool," she told Reuters. "In the past, we have had a pretty decent relationship with the Grand Slams. But from a business standpoint, it's very bad ethics to try to make a decision like this without an agreement with the players, the tournaments and the tour."...TR.net reports the WTA Championships will move to Madrid beginning in 2006.