Venus Runs Out of Gas, ATP Backing Down on Doubles Changes

At one-set all, Federer faced double break point at 3-all, 15-40, but fought his way out with the help of a stunning backhand pass and two unforced errors from the all-court German.

"That game was huge, absolutely," Federer said. "I was not so happy the way I was playing, especially in the second set. Third was getting better, especially after that pass. I really felt that shift in momentum. I took advantage of that. In the fourth set, I started to feel like I'm really in control again where I didn't feel that way at all before. I had the feeling actually momentum was all on his side."

Kiefer had recorded three consecutive wins over the Swiss during 2001-02, but since then has lost six straight.

"We (are) on Earth, but he's playing on different planet," Kiefer said.

No. 3 seed Lleyton Hewitt looked dominant against Dominik "The Dominator" Hrbaty with a routine 6-1, 6-4, 6-2 win.

"I think I stepped it up today," Hewitt said. "I just went out there with the game plan that (coach) Roger (Rasheed) and I had put together and just executed it perfectly and did what I needed to do. And didn't feel that under pressure on either my service games nor his."

The Dominator suffered from erratic play and failed to take care of his serve after going up an early break in the second set.

"Yeah, I didn't play my best," said the pink-shirted reverse-dominatrix-bra wearing Hrbaty. "I made too many mistakes against him. And he's the kind of player like he's waiting for opponent's mistakes."

Hewitt will next face unseeded Finn Jarkko Nieminen, who straight-setted Fernando Verdasco 6-2, 7-6(6), 6-3.

Also into the quarters was No. 11 seed David Nalbandian, who defeated Italy's Davide Sanguinetti 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-4, 6-2.

Nalbandian has reached at least the fourth round at every slam this year, but besides winning the claycourt title at Munich has had a poor year for a player of his caliber, sinking him just outside of the Top 10.

Nalbandian, next up for Federer, leads the Swiss 5-2 in their career meetings, losing the last two.

"I've had tough losses against Nalbandian," Federer said. "I like to play guys who beat me, especially early in my career, and try to get them back."

Scheduled for Wednesday are (8) Guillermo "El Mago" Coria vs. Robby "Baby Courier" Ginepri (first career meeting), and (7) Agassi vs. James Blake (Agassi leads meetings 3-1).

Sharapova Shaky, Clijsters Grounds Down Venus at US Open

The familiar choking was there, the double faults at 30-all, the shanked forehands on break points, but in the end it was never-slam winner Kim Clijsters posting one of the biggest wins of her career Tuesday night at the US Open, coming back from a set and 2-4 down to defeat seven-time grand slam winner Venus Williams 4-6, 7-5, 6-1.

Both favorites coming into the Open, Clijsters had extra incentive during the match after Venus' pre-match comments, essentially saying that even though she lost their last meeting, Venus thought she and Clijsters had similar games except that she did everything better.

After failing to close out the second set, Venus succumbed to that familiar Williams sisters foe -- fitness -- looking physically and mentally spent in the third set.

"I just kept hanging in there," Clijsters said. "Even though I wasn't playing my best tennis, I was fighting and defending well. It got her tired as well. We had a lot of long rallies. I started noticing that she wasn't running as well as she used to. I knew that if I would win that second set, I would have a good chance to win because I felt fine."

Venus in her post-match conference said Clijsters played well but sucked the elder Williams sister into her web of poor play.

"At the end of the day, the best player usually wins, and she definitely played the best today," Venus said. "She started hitting these really weird shots and just weird stuff...And the next thing, I was playing as bad as she was. She was able to recover. I just wasn't. I guess maybe it was a good strategy."

Clijsters will now face No. 1 seed Maria Sharapova in the Friday semifinal, with the Russian surviving a 7-5, 4-6, 6-4 ugly win over countrywoman Nadia Petrova.

"I thought it was too easy in the beginning," said Sharapova, who jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the first set before the wheels came off, with the two combining for almost 100 unforced errors. "I was on fire. She wasn't playing that badly, I was just making winner after winner. All of a sudden, I just went out of the stadium and my mojo wasn't there...The last game I guess it just decided to come back."

Sharapova may have had her mojo take a walkabout with Andy Roddick's, with the two fending off rumors of dating entering the US Open.

"So many ups and downs," said Sharapova of advancing into the semis, where her consistency will need to dial way up to defeat the scrambling Clijsters. "I just found a way to fight. A lot of credit to Nadia, she played an amazing match."

Scheduled for Wednesday are (2) Davenport vs. (6) Dementieva (first meeting this year, with Davenport leading the career series 10-4), (3) Mauresmo vs. (12) Pierce in an all-French (Mauresmo leads 4-2, winning both meetings this year), and in doubles (7) Groenefeld/M.Navratilova vs. (2) Kuznetsova/Molik.

"I feel like my first serve is getting better. But the second serve, I still slice it too much," said Dementieva on her anemic delivery that Davenport will attempt to lunch on. "I'm always serving to the forehand side. It's kind of difficult to change something when you are playing in a grand slam."

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Roger Federer has reached the QF at his sixth straight Grand Slam...According to the punters at William Hill, James Blake is a slight favorite to beat Andre Agassi...When was the last time two Americans first reached a US Open QF together? We'll say Pete Sampras and Aaron Krickstein?...In the only hardcourt match Roger Federer lost this year he had a match point (Marat Safin, Aussie Open)...Is Guillermo Coria a quicker version of Robby Ginepri? Or is Robby Ginepri a stronger version of Guillermo Coria? We will have the answer soon...Look for Norm Chryst to likely chair the Agassi-Blake match...Wanna see Roger Federer play really bad, then watch Phillip Bester, the young Canadian talent who plays like the Swiss No. 1. Kellen Damico, for what it's worth, has decided his path to success is to copy Andy Roddick, including his backhand and strut...Paul Goldstein and Jim Thomas saved eight match points in their 16-14 third-set tiebreak win over Aspelin and Perry...Memo to USTA head Arlen Kantarian: How come some of the best and most memorable moments at the US Open take place when no one is watching, i.e. they happen near or after midnight when most of the east coast is fast asleep and the stands are mostly empty. Name another sport that does that. If Agassi and Blake go five sets Wednesday night, chances the stands will be full at that time is zero...The last match Roger Federer lost at the US Open was to David Nalbandian...Nadia Petrova remains the highest ranking current player to never have won a title...Guillermo Coria missed last year's US Open after undergoing right shoulder surgery in August, and is 11-12 career against Americans. Coria, Roger Federer and David Nalbandian have reached the last 16 of all four slams this year...Robby Ginepri did not win more than two consecutive matches at an event this year through Newport, and at last year's US Open lost in his opener to Andre Agassi...Andre Agassi is 75-17 at the US Open, with the second-best record behind Jimmy Connor's 98-17...Against Andre Agassi will it be the match where James Blake finally runs out of gas, entering the US Open straight off his title run at New Haven? Look for Agassi to test Blake's legs early with a couple rides on the side-to-side merry-go-round...From Britain's The Herald: "When asked about the devastation in New Orleans and surrounding areas, where thousands are thought to have died, (Venus) Williams remarked she doesn't watch the news. Having beaten Serena, she attempted to excuse herself by explaining, unconvincingly, that the murder of her sister Yetunde two years ago means she finds current affairs TV programmes upsetting. "The reason I don't watch the news is because I don't like violence. My life has been touched by violence. When you watch the news, all you hear is reports of violence," said Williams. "So that's why, you know, I don't expose myself to that because it's heart-wrenching and terrible." Williams' self-justification has been given short shrift by the American Press. "Venus is so far off the planet she might as well be called Pluto," wrote one columnist -- and cannot expect any goodwill from the press against Clijsters, who, incidentally, has given $25,000 to the hurricane relief effort."...The USTA is still mulling over a decision to invest $5-6 million in the Indian Wells event to keep it from moving to Asia...Charlie "The Blogging Brick" Bricker with the scoop on the ATP doubles controversy: "The raging controversy over the future of men's doubles is virtually over after newly hired chairman of the board Etienne de Villiers delivered a very promising settlement proposal to the 45 players who last Thursday sued the ATP Tour. The key points from de Villiers: Revocation of the "2008 Rule," which would have prohibited any player from participating in doubles at an ATP event who was not concurrently in the singles draw...Accept the several low-financial impact proposals from the players, including the hiring of a director of doubles, who would be a sort of advocate for the doubles players...Continue with plans for an experimental use of altered scoring for the rest of the season, beginning after the US Open. That means no-ad scoring (receiving team getting choice of ad or deuce box on the seventh and final point), tiebreaks at 5-5 instead of 6-6 and super-tiebreaks is sets are one-all. There is still a hard core of players who want to get rid of the scoring changes as well, but there appears to be a growing feeling that de Villiers is going to be reasonable to deal with in settling all the issues that have driven doubles players to sue, and they're willing to drop the suit. Players are scheduled to meet again Wednesday with representatives of de Villiers, who is in London recovering from successful prostate cancer surgery."...From the New York Times: "USA (Network) is not contractually obligated to carry matches past 11 p.m., but routinely has in the past, and did Saturday night for (Robby) Ginepri's third-round victory over Tommy Haas. But Monday night, Gordon Beck, USA's executive producer for sports, said he determined that the slow pace of the three-hour Ginepri-(Richard) Gasquet match made it unlikely that it would end at a reasonable time. When USA broke away, each player had won a set, with the third set just starting. "My judgment was that it would take a long time to complete the next two sets, let alone a fifth set," Beck said. He said USA received about 30 calls to protest his decision. The last part of Ginepri's five-set victory was seen on CBS's late-night tennis show, which begins at 12:37 a.m. Beck said if one of the players had been Andre Agassi or Roger Federer, USA would have stayed past 11 "because you know it would have been a broader audience."" Ouch...Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce for France will face Anastasia Myskina and Elena Dementieva of Russia in the Fed Cup final on Sept. 17-18 at Roland Garros.