The Hindu : Venus makes final; Hewitt to meet Henman in semifinals

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jul 05, 2002

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Venus makes final; Hewitt to meet Henman in semifinals

By Nirmal Shekar

Britain's Tim Henman makes a valiant effort to reach for a shot against Brazil's Andre Sa, during their men's singles quarterfinal encounter at Wimbledon on Thursday. Henman won in four sets. — AP

London, July 4. England 3, Brazil 1. How a whole nation dreaming the impossible dream of glory on a world stage in the cause of this country's popular religion— football--one dreaming of recreating the miracle of 1966, would have loved that score-line had it been a reality in Japan two weeks ago! In the event, it was the wrong sport and the wrong time, but what the hell, it was still a cause for national celebration as Tim Henman, enacting Act 9, Scene 5 (ninth Wimbledon, fifth match) in one of the longest running soap operas in British sport, once again took thousands of centre court fans through an emotional roller coaster before getting past Andre Sa of Brazil 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 in the men's singles quarterfinals of the 116th Wimbledon championships on Thursday.

As if a little upset because Henman had kept her waiting in the locker room longer than she might have expected to wait, the woman's top seed and two-time champion, Venus Williams, steamrolled her way past Justine Henin of Belgium 6-3, 6-2 to make her third straight final here.

The little Belgian, beaten here in the final last year by Venus, had her 15 minutes of fame as she broke Venus's serve in the first game and then held her own to lead 2-0. But the moment she squandered that advantage with three unforced errors on the forehand to lose serve in the fourth game the match had turned.

From there it was a Venus Masterclass on grass as the powerful, athletic champion did as she pleased, leaping in the air like Pete Sampras for overhead winners, hitting blistering passes and serving with tremendous confidence.

In the earlier match, Sa, a slender young man with a curly mop of chestnut brown hair and a fashionable goatee, world ranked 90, was hardly likely to do a Ronaldinho, so to say, to British hopes.

But during a fortnight when Henman himself seemed as much out of step as David Seaman in the English goal against Brazil, a stunning blow could never be ruled out.

Coming in to resume the contest with a one-set lead in his bag, Henman let go of two setpoints on Sa's serve in the 10th game of the second set, promptly lost the set in quick time, and brought thousands of Henmaniacs to seat edge.

Will he? Or, won't he? Not even David Beckham's broken metatarsal on the eve of the World Cup might have caused as much anxiety in British society.

As it turned out, Henman did produce his best tennis--at least the best he's been able to muster this fortnight--after the loss of the second set to make his fourth semifinals here in five years.

``I am not excited about getting to the semifinals. I have been there before. I want to go one step further and win the championship,'' said Henman. "I have not always played my best tennis but I have fought well.''

Henman turned the match around in the third set on the strength of his improving confidence in his service games. This gave him the chance to attack Sa's serves, especially the second delivery and the Englishman, after swapping breaks early in the third set, hit a forehand winner to break for the set in the 10th game.

In the fourth, Henman broke with a crosscourt forehand in the second game and from there he was never really challenged.

``You don't get any bonus for winning in straight sets. I have won and I am in the semifinals,'' said Henman. "The third set was crucial. I dug my heel in there.''

But, then, so did the top seed who will play Henman in the semifinals.

Hewitt forced to dig deep

Lleyton Hewitt, serenely cruising to what looked like yet another straight sets victory, saw how quickly a grass court match can turn, and finally had to dig really deep to outlast Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands 6-2, 6-2, 6-7(5), 1-6, 7-5.

Schalken was hardly in the fight in the first two sets. But even as Hewitt seemed to lose concentration just that little and his groundstrokes began to fly inches wide of the lines, the Dutchman staged a gutsy rally.

Serving to stay in the match in the 12th game of the third set, Schalken fought off four matchpoints and then played with great confidence in a tiebreak where Hewitt felt that he ended up at the wrong end of the score-line because of a wrong call.

It was the eighth point of the tiebreak and a Schalken shot seemed to sail a fraction of an inch beyond the baseline. Hewitt let the ball go past but the shot was called good by the linesman and the chair umpire Javier Moreno-Perez of Spain was in no mind to over-rule.

Once he lost the tiebreak, Hewitt went walkabout and Schalken ran away with the fourth and, what is more, was twice up a break in the decider. But with the tape in sight, the champion Aussie put on a burst of speed, setting up his fifth matchpoint with a forehand pass and then wrapping up the match when a Shalken forehand flew wide.

Meanwhile, Leander Paes, playing with Lisa Raymond of the United States, moved into the pre-quarterfinals of the mixed doubles event beating Paul Haarhuis and Miriam Oremans of the Netherlands 4-6, 7-5, 6-3. Paes was serving for the match in the ninth game of the decider and the pairs were locked at deuce in that game when rain stopped play on Wednesday evening.

Late on Wednesday evening, well past 9 p.m., Richard Krajicek stretched his incredible run in the championships into the quarterfinals as he won the fifth set against Mark Philippoussis in the gloaming. In a match that was originally scheduled for Monday but was played over two days, Tuesday and Wednesday, Krajicek, the 1996 champion, ran out a 6-7, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6, 6-4 winner.

For a man who came into the grass court season not having played for 20 months and with a protected ranking of 37, Krajicek has pulled off a minor miracle indeed. On his real ranking, outside the top 1000, he would hardly be able to get into a Satellite event directly. But here he is, enjoying his best Wimbledon since beating the great Pete Sampras in the quarterfinals en route to the 1996 title.

``This is unbelievable, something I could never have expected,'' said Krajicek who had originally planned to take a break this week in Majorca, Spain, where he has a holiday home.

Philippoussis actually won more points in the match (201 to 188 by Krajicek) and hit more aces (27 to 24) but the one double fault in the opening game of the decider on breakpoint changed everything for the Aussie giant.

The results: men's singles quarterfinals: Tim Henman (Bri) bt Andre Sa (Bra) 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3; Lleyton Hewitt (Aus) Sjeng Schalken (NED) 6-2, 6-2, 6-7(5), 1-6, 7-5. Fourth round: Richard Krajicek (Ned) bt Mark Philippoussis (Aus) 6-7 (2), 7-6 (4), 6-7 (1), 7-6 (5), 6-4.

Mixed doubles (third round): Mahesh Bhupathi (Ind)/3-Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) bt Thomas Shimada/Rika Fujiwara (Jpn) 6-2, 7-5. Leander Paes (Ind)/Lisa Raymond (US) bt Paul Haarhuis/Miriam Oremans (Ned) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

Women (semifinals): Venus Williams (US) bt Justine Henin (Bel) 6-3, 6-2.

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