Venus Goes Out With a Whimper

Tears were shed in England on Wednesday.

An angry voice rang out loudly in palpable rage that made the victim shake. And there was heated finger-pointing and blame assigned over perceived injustice.

Angst over England’s epic loss to Argentina in the World Cup?

No, it was an epic temper tantrum by a teenager in an argument with adults. Seventh-seeded Venus Williams failed to win the argument and shortly thereafter lost the match, 7-5, 7-6 (7-2), to third-seeded Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon.

The outburst over line calls was unusual in that Williams, 18, usually makes more noise with her ground strokes. It was a loud soundtrack to an unprecictable series of women’s quarterfinal matches here.

Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport of Newport Beach, sixth-seeded Monica Seles and fifth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain, the French Open champion, also failed to reach the semifinals.

Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland defeated Sanchez Vicario, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, one of the few results that went according to form. It marked the first set Hingis, the defending champion, has lost in five matches here.

Sixteenth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France defeated Davenport, 6-3, 6-3, and unseeded Natasha Zvereva of Belarus beat Seles, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

So with all the talk about the rise of the teenagers, today’s semifinals feature Hingis, 17, against Novotna, 29, and Tauziat, 30, against Zvereva, 27.

Just what were the odds on Zvereva beating Steffi Graf and Seles in the same tournament? Or Tauziat beating Davenport for the first time in eight matches?

Are the older players sending a message to the younger ones?

“Telepathically or how?” Zvereva asked. “Me? I don’t send my messages here.”

Williams used the medium of Centre Court to send her message in the second set after squandering a 4-1 lead in the first. The first outburst was mild. Williams complained that a Novotna shot was “so far out,” and walked over to the lineswoman and continued to make her case.

She picked up the volume in the seventh game, turning into an emotional mess over another non-call, pointing and screaming at chair umpire Mike Morrissey: “I know it’s out,” she said. “She [Novotna] knows it’s out. Everybody here knows it’s out! You don’t know it’s out.”

Williams was angry and crying. When she double-faulted to lose the game, falling behind, 4-3, Williams was shaking and crying on the changeover. Her mood calmed and she fought to send the second set to a tiebreaker. But Williams lost the final five points, smacking forehands into the net on three of them.

Of the disputed line calls, Williams maintained she had to argue.

“I felt like I needed to do that because I really wanted to win those points, and the ball was really out,” she said. “. . . I was probably pretty loud, though.”

Said Novotna: “I think she lost it there a little bit for a while. Maybe she had a good reason for that, but that [bad calls] happens to everybody.”

Williams talked about the entertainment value of her histrionics.

“I think the crowd probably enjoyed my emotional outbursts,” she said. “I guess someone would turn the channel and suddenly see some girl screaming and keep it there. I know I would. It probably brightened up someone’s day.”

The emotional immaturity overshadowed a quickly maturing game. Williams, who lost here in the first round last year, has made tremendous strides. She was resourceful and made adjustments against Novotna, serving and volleying in the second set.

Still, Novotna said she felt confident when Williams started coming in.

“I felt I had the edge because in the second set Venus started coming in quite a lot,” she said. “I mean, she is not even coming in during mixed doubles or in doubles. So you can imagine how desperate she was when she started to come in--even after second serves.”

Novotna is a savvy grass-court player, having reached the finals at Wimbledon twice. She did not panic despite trailing 4-1 in the first set.

“I didn’t play Venus for a long time, and before I got used to the pace she was playing at, it really took me a while,” Novotna said.

Neither Seles nor Davenport was able to find the range in her match. Davenport, one match from reaching the French Open final last month, was trying to reach her fourth straight Grand Slam semifinal. On paper, the prospect looked strong considering she had lost only one set to Tauziat in their last seven matches.

Davenport’s forehand was shaky, and she said she was outhit by Tauziat.

“That’s by far the best she’s ever played against me,” Davenport said. “She was hitting the ball very hard. It wasn’t as bad as I played at the French when I lost [to Sanchez Vicario]. But it was still not great.

“I didn’t think she was going to be hitting her ground strokes so well. I was expecting her to come in a fair bit, but she was really outhitting me from the baseline.”

Said Tauziat: “I am very happy she said that. Right now, my game is powerful, and I’ve worked hard because tennis today is very powerful.”

For Seles, it was her first loss to Zvereva in five matches.

“I was missing my backhand all over the place,” Seles said. “You can’t do that. My performance today really bugs me. When you lose, it’s very tough. But not so much if you lose playing good tennis. Today, the standard I was playing was not good.”

Today’s Featured Matches

WOMEN’S SINGLES SEMIFINALS

* Natasha Zvereva, Belarus, vs. Nathalie Tauziat (16), France.

* Martina Hingis (1), Switzerland, vs. Jana Novotna (3), Czech Republic.