MELBOURNE, Australia -- One Williams down, one to go for
Martina Hingis.
|  | | Martina Hingis celebrates Wednesday's victory. |
The top-seeded Hingis spoiled a potential sibling showdown at
the Australian Open by winning a sloppy but dramatic marathon from
Serena Williams 6-2, 3-6, 8-6 to complete the women's quarterfinals
Wednesday.
Williams' sister, Venus, earlier overcame a slow start and a
late deficit to edge Amanda Coetzer in another extended third set,
2-6, 6-1, 8-6.
In Thursday's semifinals, Hingis will renew her rivalry with the
third-seeded Venus Williams, who needs two more victories for her
third consecutive Grand Slam tournament title. Hingis leads the
matchup 9-7, but Williams won both meetings last year en route to
titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Defending champion Lindsay Davenport, seeded second, will play
No. 12 Jennifer Capriati in the other semifinal.
Serena Williams, who often blames health problems for her
defeats, said a bout of food poisoning contributed to the latest
loss.
"I wasn't at my best or feeling my best, so I'm pretty
disappointed," she said in a statement. "I did well considering I
haven't eaten in two days, apart from some piece of toast here and
there."
Williams consulted with a trainer during several changeovers
after the first set, and she grimaced or bent over in apparent
discomfort after a few points. But she played doubles after her
singles match, and Hingis wasn't too sympathetic.
"You have to watch what you eat," Hingis said. "You couldn't
really tell she had food poisoning. I think it was more that I wore
her out."
Hingis trailed 4-1 in the final set and was two points from
defeat at 5-4, deuce. But she broke Williams' serve to reach 5-5,
then broke again in the final game, winning the second match point
with an overhead smash.
"It was a great comeback," Hingis said. "I was just trying to
hang in there. I wasn't feeling that great."
Williams struggled with her serve and committed 54 errors, 29 in
the final set. But Hingis needed 2 hours, 19 minutes to secure the
victory.
"It was a great effort by both of us, and I was lucky," Hingis
said. She's bidding for her sixth Grand Slam tournament title but
her first in two years.
Three times Hingis has defeated one Williams sister and then
lost to the other in the same event, most recently at the 1999 U.S.
Open, when Serena beat her in the final.
Only twice has a player beaten both sisters in the same
tournament: Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1998 and Steffi Graf in 1999.
It was almost a Coetzer-Hingis semifinal. Venus Williams trailed
Coetzer 5-3 in the final set and won despite a whopping 56 unforced
errors.
"I pretty much fought for everything I got," Venus Williams
said. "Toward the end I cut down on my errors and moved forward. I
had been in that situation many times before. I had the experience
of being in the hole."
Defending men's champ Andre Agassi, seeded sixth, will play No.
12 Patrick Rafter in the men's semifinals Thursday night. Rafter
reached the final four in his country's biggest tournament for the
first time by beating No. 14 Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-0
Tuesday night.
No. 5 Yevgeny Kafelnikov was the top-seeded player remaining in
the other half of the draw.
Venus Williams is 11 inches taller than the 5-foot-2 Coetzer and
hits her serves 25 mph faster, which made their pairing look like a
mismatch. For a while it was.
Coetzer, seeded 10th, was content to keep the ball in play and
wait for errors by an erratic Williams, who lost the first eight
points, lost 16 of the first 19 and fell behind 4-0. In the first
set she committed 19 errors and hit just one winner.
"Let's go, Venus, wake up!" a fan shouted.
She did, holding serve with an ace to start the second set, then
breaking for the first time when Coetzer double-faulted. Mistakes
began to creep into the South African's game, while Williams tamed
her wild strokes somewhat.
"I really had to pick myself up if I wanted to stay in the
tournament," Williams said. "I don't like to lose, and I just
really didn't want to."
But the rallies became especially sloppy down the stretch.
Coetzer served for the victory at 5-3 but quickly committed four
unforced errors and lost the game. Williams then had a chance to
serve it out at 6-5 but won only one point, double-faulted and hit
three groundstrokes wide to lose the game.
Williams broke again, then concluded the ragged victory with an
overhead winner. She smiled and sagged her shoulders in relief at
her second consecutive three-set win.
"Today," she admitted, "was not one of my better days."
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