Ascending Venus Eclipses a Star

The future is beginning to be now for 16-year-old tennis player Venus Williams, whose name for the last two years has been mentioned in the same sentence with the words promise and potential.

Tuesday, in a round-of-16 match in the State Farm Evert Cup tournament, promise and potential turned into a stunning result.

Williams, the 5-foot-11 former Southern Californian now living in Florida, upset No. 5-seeded Iva Majoli of Croatia, the No. 9-ranked player in the world, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5, in a 2-hour 33-minute match.

Williams’ upset came before a nearly packed house on the Stadium Court at the Hyatt Grand Champions resort, a crowd already heated up by temperatures in the 90s and that warmed even more to this hard-hitting, big-serving youngster with the dreadlocks and white beads.

“I was having fun out there. The crowd was great,” Williams said.

Mixing huge forehands with solid two-fisted backhands and first serves that occasionally reached 115 mph, Williams stayed with the veteran Majoli to 4-5 of the final set. Needing to save two match points, Williams did so, the second with a 109-mph ace. She broke the serve of a tiring Majoli for 6-5, then battled through a 12-point game that included two match points saved by Majoli.

Finally, after the second match point was saved with a big overhead from Majoli, Williams cranked up her serve, hitting one 114 mph for a service winner and then finishing the match with a 106-mph ace.

“My serve had been on vacation,” Williams said afterward, “but we met up again today.”

Majoli, while blaming herself for playing badly and especially for serving badly, also had an interesting take on Williams.

“She has some craziness in her,” Majoli said. “She is just going for everything. . . . She doesn’t care about anyone or anything. She just plays tennis.”

The victory was also only the 24th professional match of Williams’ career, and only her fifth of this year, all here, including two in a qualifier tournament and three in the main draw. Her 25th match will be a quarterfinal against fourth-seeded Lindsay Davenport, the eighth-ranked player in the world, tonight.

But just because her father, Richard, has kept her schedule light, it doesn’t mean her goals aren’t lofty.

“My goal for this year was to get in the top 20,” she said, “but the way I’m playing now, I can do better than that.”

Williams began the Evert Cup ranked No. 211. After beating Majoli, she was up to a career-best No. 114, and if she were to beat Davenport, she would rise to the mid-70s. .

Tennis Notes

Besides Iva Majoli, two other seeded women players were eliminated Tuesday. No. 15 Chanda Rubin, ahead, 5-1, in the third set and with five match points, lost the first match of the evening session to No. 2 Conchita Martinez, 6-1, 1-6, 7-5; and No. 11 Kimberly Po lost to No. 9 Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-2, 6-3. . . . Top-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario had a struggle before beating France’s Sandrine Testud, 3-6, 6-2, 6-2. . . . In the men’s Newsweek Champions Cup, top-seeded Pete Sampras and No. 4 Goran Ivanisevic will play their first matches today, and No. 2 Thomas Muster and No. 3 Michael Chang won Tuesday. But No. 5 Marcelo Rios lost to Magnus Larsson, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (9-7); No. 7 Wayne Ferreira lost to Gustavo Kuerten, 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-3, and No. 9 Alberto Costa lost to former USC star Byron Black, 6-2, 6-2. . . . Paul Haarhuis, runner-up to Chang in last year’s final, was ousted in the first round by Slava Dosedel, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, 6-1. . . . The Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, ended their doubles run with a 6-3, 6-0 loss to Lindsay Davenport and Natasha Zvereva.

Another piece of the American Davis Cup puzzle was inadvertently put into place Tuesday when Andre Agassi announced he would play in the April 4-6 World Group quarterfinals against the Netherlands at Newport Beach. The only player who previously had committed to play for the U.S. was Jim Courier, but Agassi was asked about it after his loss here and said he would play. The U.S. Tennis Assn. has scheduled a press conference for today to make Courier and Agassi official participants and also announce the doubles team, likely Rick Leach and Jonathan Stark.

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Court Is in Session

Today’s featured matches in the State Farm Evert Cup (women) and Newsweek Champions Cup (men) tournaments at the Hyatt Grand Champion Resort. Seedings in parentheses:

DAY SESSION STARTING AT 10

* Stadium Court--Nathalie Tauziat (13) vs. Irina Spirlea (6), Pete Sampras (1) vs. Bohdan Ulihrach, Goran Ivanisevic (4) vs. Jonathan Stark, Mary Joe Fernandez (9) vs. Conchita Martinez (2).

* Clubhouse Court--Byron Black vs. Alex O’Brien, Chris Woodruff vs. Thomas Enqvist (6), Todd Woodbridge vs. Mark Philippoussis.

* Court Three--Marc Rosset (13) vs. Hendrik Dreekman, Nicklas Kulti vs. Alberto Berasategui (14).

* Court Four--Alex Corretja (15) vs. Slava Dosedel (match No. 3).

NIGHT SESSION STARTING AT 6:30

Venus Williams vs. Lindsay Davenport (4), Carlos Moya (8) vs. Jiri Novak.