Clijsters Tops Hingis, Federer Wins at Oz Open

"It's great and I'm so happy because I knew the situation," said Kiefer, advancing to his career-first slam semifinal. "I've been so many times in the quarterfinals and this one today was my biggest one."

Kiefer's lead-up to Melbourne saw him as a slim hope with injury pull-outs from the Hopman Cup and Kooyong exhibitions, suffering back and ankle problems.

"I take so many painkillers but now everything hurts," Kiefer said.

Controversy and the specter of unsportsmanlike conduct arose late in the fifth set after Kiefer, who had scrambled for a dropshot then popped it up for an easy put-away for Grosjean, distracted the Frenchman by deliberately throwing his racquet in front of the path of the ball, with his racquet landing on Grosjean's side of the net. The distracted Frenchman missed the put-away, complaining to the chair umpire, while Kiefer immediately wagged his finger and shook his head, indicating the point should stand.

An official came out to confer with the chair umpire, with a ruling that the point stood as played, to the astonishment of fans and players alike.

"Of course, it's not nice but what can I do?" Kiefer said after the match. "I'm a person with so much tension inside. Everybody has to understand there are so many emotions and so much tension, you fight for four and a half hours and it happens."

Kiefer said he apologized for the incident, which Grosjean could not recall in his post-match conference, and the Frenchman bristled at Kiefer referring to him as his "good friend."

"I mean, 'friend' is a big word, I think," Grosjean said. "No, I think I was a little bit disappointed in, you know, the way he throw the racquet, you know, on such a big point. So even if he was expecting to lose the point, I mean, that's not the way it is."

Winners in doubles quarterfinal action Wednesday were (1) the Bryan brothers (d. Hernych/Karlovic 6-1 in the third), and (4) Paul Hanley/Kevin Ullyett (d. (8) Aspelin/Perry in three).

Scheduled for Thursday is the first singles semifinal is (4) Nalbandian vs. Marcos "Bombs Over" Baghdatis (career meetings tied 1-1), and the doubles semis in (1) the Bryan brothers vs. (4) Hanley/Ullyett, and (7) Damm/Paes vs. the unseeded Poles Fyrstenberg/Matkowski.

Clijsters Ends Hingis Run at Australian Open

In 2003 Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin-Hardenne dominated the WTA Tour, competing in six finals against each other, including two slam championship matches at the French and US Opens.

On Wednesday at the Australian Open, the No. 2 seed Kim Clijsters put another all-Belgian final a mere one match away when she stopped the amazing run of comeback kid Martina Hingis, edging the unseeded Swiss 6-3, 2-6, 6-4.

Clijsters jumped to a 4-0 lead in eventually capturing the first set, and a 2-0 lead in the second before her backhand broke down in the face of Hingis' baseline consistency. The Belgian against jumped out to an early 3-1 lead in the third, but the Swiss evened things at 3-3 before Clijsters broke again in the next game. Serving at 3-5, Hingis saved two match points before Clijsters closed out the match on her serve at love.

"I felt very empty out there today," said Clijsters, who has struggled with hip and back injuries in Melbourne. "I just hit the wall. All of a sudden I just felt like I was going for wide backhands, felt no power in my legs to push off and to create the power you have to create to be able to beat her, to break her game. In the third set, I started to keep the rallies a little shorter again, and it worked."

Hingis, competing in her third event of 2006 after a three-year layoff, saw positives in the loss.

"I lost only 6-4 in the third against the No. 1 player starting from (this coming) Monday, so I don't think it's that bad after all," Hingis said. "Three years pass by, you can't just think you're going to step out there and win everything. I made the last eight, and all the other players are either former No. 1s or Top 8 players or Top 10 players. I'm one of them who was in the draw. You know, if you make the final eight, you definitely have the belief."

In the other quarterfinal Wednesday, No. 3 seed Amelie Mauresmo, still seeking her first career slam title, announced her continued presence with a 6-3, 6-0 thrashing of No. 7 seed Patty Schnyder.

"I was just off, and she was all over me," said Schnyder, appearing in her third consecutive Australian Open quarterfinal. "She just took advantage and didn't let it go. I had the feeling when I rally with her, I was getting tired and pushed back too much, just too much power. It's really one of the rare ones where there was no match at all. I don't really know what happened to me."

In the first doubles semifinal, No. 12 seeds Yan Zi and Zheng Jie of China gained the final, the first-ever slam final for Chinese players, defeating No. 9 seeds Shinobu Asagoe and Katarina Srebotnik 6-2, 7-6(2).

On court Thursday are the semifinals in (4) Sharapova vs. (8) Henin-Hardenne (Belgian leads career series 2-1), and (2) Clijsters vs. (3) Mauresmo (Belgian leads 8-3).

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TENNIS-X NEWS, NOTES, QUOTES AND BARBS
Temperatures on Thursday, which is Australia Day (like July 4 in the U.S.), are expected to be near 100F, so the roof could be closed...Kim Clijsters has won 12 straight Slam matches while countrywoman Justine Henin-Hardenne has won 12 straight at the Australian Open...With her quarterfinal effort, Martina Hingis will be ranked near No. 110...Marcos Baghdatis has moved into the Top 30...Amelie Mauresmo is the only one of the four women semifinalists without a Slam title. Mauresmo snapped a seven-match losing skid against Kim Clijsters with her win over the Belgian at the WTA Championships...Justine Henin-Hardenne has won her last three Slam semifinal matches while Maria Sharapova has lost three straight...In his 35th career Slam, Nicholas Kiefer has reached his first career Slam semifinal...When David Nalbandian was 20 he reached his first career Slam final at Wimbledon, a feat Marcos Baghdatis will try to match at the Australian Open. Nalbandian has won 14 straight games at the Australian Open. Baghdatis has won 17 of his career 18 matches in Melbourne, losing only to Roger Federer last year. The only Top 10 player to beat him is also Federer...Martina Hingis is four years younger than Lindsay Davenport. Think about it...Maria Sharapova is the only player left in either draw yet to drop a set...When Andy Roddick cans Dean Goldfine, will Jim Courier, who was good-naturedly lobbying for the job interviewing Roddick last week, be the first consideration? By the way, for those that have seen them, how good are Courier's on-court interviews for Australia's local broadcast (answer: pretty entertaining), and why hasn't ESPN or The Tennis Channel bargained the rights to show them to audiences outside Australia?. Here's Marcos Baghdatis on blowing his 2-0 set lead, speaking to Courier after his win over Ivan Ljubicic that ended after 1 a.m. in Melbourne: "I mean, uh I started thinking a lot, I started putting some doubts in my head and he started serving well and he got some confidence. It was going to so fast, I couldn't control the game. In the fifth set I just don't miss the ball and fight for every point, and that's what I did. I'm very happy today I played great tennis again. I went through so it's very nice."...From the Sydney Morning Herald: "Tommy Haas's spray at Jim Courier and Courier nowhere to be seen for a response. Courier's style of asking the personal questions of players has polarized players and fans but it was a surprise that his adoration of Federer was such an issue. Good on Haas for letting rip."...From the Morocco Times: "Younes El Aynaoui voiced on Tuesday his surprise over press reports saying that the Italian Association of Sports Medicine had issued a communique alleging that he tested positive for THC (cannabis) on Dec. 3, 2005 in Italy. El Aynaoui stressed, in a press release, "that I have never consumed or used such a substance." He said that the Italian Association has never contacted him to inform him of this news. He also added that "the president of the Italian Association of Tennis has contacted me today and said that he had no idea of this [information]." The Moroccan tennis player underlined that "the fact that the Italian Association of Sports Medicine did not respect the procedures in force, at the ATP and the main national associations, reveals the association's will to harm. I really do not know the reasons."...From The Australian: "Tennis fans will be able join Alicia Molik at Federation Square in Melbourne for all the action of the Australian Open finals. The finals will be broadcast live on to a big screen in the heart of Melbourne from Thursday. The free event will feature activities through until Sunday night, including an interactive tennis zone with serve analysis, speed serve, tennis coaching clinics, an 'aces' challenge to raise funds for kids tennis and a "pose-with-the-pros" photo booth."...Kim Clijsters will take the No. 1 ranking from Lindsay Davenport on Monday...Roger Federer is 9-9 in career five-set matches...From tennisreporters.net's Matt Cronin: "I bet that Jon [Wertheim] isn't too happy that SI.com has given Justin Gimelstob such big play on the web site, given that Wertheim is a far more accomplished writer and a better analyst. But Gimelstob does have his moments and published a dozy of a claim about Ivan Ljubicic, whom he called "the best server in the world, has one of the purest backhands and is playing with the confidence of someone who believes he belongs among the game's elite.""...From the ATP: "ATP Partner INDESIT has put a one-of-a-kind item up for grabs. Europe's largest household appliance producer is auctioning off a Roger Federer INDESIT Graffiti fridge on e-Bay, with the proceeds to be donated to the Roger Federer Foundation. This artwork/appliance/memorabilia all rolled into one features an illustration of the World No. 1 alongside South African children, customized by famous Chinese artist Wu Yimin. Federer autographed the fridge at the 2005 Tennis Masters Cup in Shanghai, China."...From the Herald Sun: "The night after they both lost their Australian Open matches, Serena Williams and James Blake drowned their sorrows with tequila and vanilla shots at hip R&B club night Groovalicious at Evolution in Prahran. The pair are apparently just good friends, but have been seen a few times together during the Open, so who knows just what is going on. The group were at the Saturday nightclub until at least 2.30am, with an entourage surrounding them, of course. They were entertained by bar manager Sunny Bontoan. Serena didn't mind being photographed -- but it was a no for Blake."...Marcos Baghdatis' girlfriend, 18-year-old French model Camille Neviere, is the stepdaughter of his coach Guillaume Payre. Talk about the hook-up. Baghdatis' parents meanwhile are busy trying to get him out of the Cyprus military's compulsory 26-month service...adidas has gained EU approval to buy Reebok...From Bloomberg: "Prada suits have replaced sweatsuits for Roger Federer, the world's top-ranked tennis player who is trying to spiff up his image and get a bigger piece of international sports sponsorships. Federer, going for his seventh Grand Slam title at the Australian Open this week, in the past year has cut his hair, acquired a taste for Prada's jackets and slacks and hired International Management Group, the agency that represents golfer Tiger Woods, in a bid to lure endorsements. The 24-year-old Swiss had relied on a four-person team including his mother to handle contracts that helped produce about $14 million annually in sponsorships and prize money. Agreements, mostly with Swiss companies such as watchmaker Maurice Lacroix, have left him with endorsements worth about half of other top athletes in his sport."