Serena Strangely Lays Down to Henin at French Open

Posted on June 6, 2007

Stellar play by two Grand Slam champions and poor fitness and a bout of choking by two others featured in women's quarterfinal action Tuesday at the French Open.

Top seed Justine Henin and No. 2 Maria Sharapova were in fine form, with the Belgian dispatching of a sluggish No. 8 seed Serena Williams 6-4, 6-3, and Sharapova beating No. 9 seed and fellow Russian Anna Chakvetadze 6-3, 6-4.

Williams strangely showed little fight throughout the contest, and was broken in the last game when seemed to simply give up. Afterwards in her press conference Serena spun the loss as more to do with her playing poorly than her opponent playing well.

"All she had to do was show up," Williams said. "I thought that she did well, but I've played against her when she's played even better."

They were the 30th and 31st consecutive sets won by Henin at Roland Garros.

"She didn't look very aggressive," Henin said. "So I just understood, if I was mentally and emotionally under control today, I was going to win this match."

Sharapova is in the French semifinals for the first time, as are all the other semifinal competitors except Henin.

"I didn't come off the court and go, 'Wow, I'm in the semifinals.' That wasn't really the feeling that I had," Sharapova said. "In any tournament that I play, whether it's on clay or mud or whatever it is, I know what I'm capable of."

Two Serbs completed the semifinals when No. 4 seed Jelena Jankovic beat No. 6 Nicole Vaidisova, and No. 7 Ana Ivanovic dispatched of title contender and No. 3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-0, 3-6, 6-1.

Kuznetsova shook off her nerves in the second set but then aggravated an abdominal muscle in the final game of the set, quickly losing the third 6-1.

"I had to pull out for the doubles with abdominal muscle pain," Kuznetsova said. "It had been disturbing me for a while but it wasn't hurting that badly. But at the end of the second set, I served hard and that pulled it more. So it was extremely hard in the third set."

Jankovic needed five match points to close out Vaidisova.

"I was moving really well today and I tried to defend her balls," Jankovic said. "That's mainly what the key to the match was. I was just retrieving well."

In the semifinals Henin will face Jankovic, and Sharapova will meet Ivanovic.

On court Wednesday at Roland Garros are the remainder of the men's quarterfinals in (6) Novak Djokovic vs. Igor Andreev, and (2) Rafael Nadal vs. (23) Carlos Moya.