Victory in Round of 16 Gets Williams to Dance

Venus Williams pranced, danced and raised the roof after closing out an exciting second-set tiebreaker, advancing to the U.S. Open quarterfinals on Monday.

So what if it was merely a 6-1, 7-6 (7-4) fourth-round victory over 12th-seeded Mary Pierce of France?

Williams, upon reflection, wondered if she brought the victory dance out a bit early. After all, there’s still the upcoming quarterfinal against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain.

“I really shouldn’t have done the dance,” she said. “I should have waited till later. I don’t know why I did it. But no, I had not planned to do the dance at all. I actually had planned to win the second set real easy.”

A two-hour, 15-minute afternoon rain delay ended up giving Pierce some life after she was blown off the court in a 24-minute first set. She regrouped after the break, and the match started to look like a repeat of her last encounter against Williams in August at Carlsbad.

That’s when Williams retired because of an injured left knee in the third set of the quarterfinal. Pierce had her wrist treated that day and actually needed treatment on it again in the first set Monday.

Williams, who is seeded fifth, had been sidelined since the Carlsbad tournament and continues to wear a bandage on the knee. The knee might still bother Williams but her mobility got her out of trouble in the second-set tiebreaker.

Pierce didn’t win another point after taking a 4-1 lead.

“I was pretty happy because in my last match, I couldn’t go on against her,” Williams said. “It was terrible because I just couldn’t give my best. And I’ve never had that situation before where I couldn’t move. It would have been terrible if I had an injury against her again. I would have been thinking, ‘Maybe this is mental.’ ”

The other three fourth-round women’s matches were also a reversal of recent history. Fourth-seeded Sanchez Vicario defeated 15th-seeded Anna Kournikova of Russia, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. For Sanchez Vicario, it was her first victory against Kournikova in four matches.

Since reaching the Wimbledon semifinals in 1997, Kournikova has yet to get out of the fourth round in a Grand Slam tournament.

“I made a little bit more mistakes than she did,” Kournikova said. “It was a tough one. She didn’t make any mistakes.”

Second-seeded Lindsay Davenport defeated 10th-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-1, 6-4, in 67 minutes to reverse a Wimbledon result. At Wimbledon, Tauziat defeated Davenport in straight sets in the quarterfinals.

Did this mean more in light of that defeat?

“Let me think about that,” she said. “I guess so. I wasn’t happy when I lost to her at Wimbledon. But I’ve played her a lot of times before, and I know she’s a great, great player. Hard courts is a different story for myself. I didn’t want to go out in the round of 16 at the U.S. Open quite yet.”

Davenport caught something of a break in regard to her quarterfinal opponent, as 13th-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa upset seventh-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2. Martinez said she was troubled by a sore neck.

Martinez defeated Davenport in three sets in the semifinals of the Australian Open this year. Davenport holds a 6-2 record against Coetzer, and has not lost to her on a hard-court surface since 1994.

Davenport is a different player now.

“I’m a much stronger competitor,” she said. “I kind of realize that if I was playing tennis, I want to go do it and be out there and win. I’ve worked so hard now, the last couple of years, that I’m not going to go out there and say, ‘I don’t want to win today.’

“Mentally, I’m getting stronger and physically I’m getting stronger. I want this tournament just as bad as the other seven players left in it.”

Today’s Featured Matches

MEN

* P. Rafter (3) vs. G. Ivanisevic (14)

* Alex Corretja (7) vs. Carlos Moya (10)

* Karol Kucera vs. Andre Agassi (8)

* T. Johansson vs. Y. Kafelnikov (11)

* Tim Henman (13) vs. M. Philippoussis

* Alex Corretja (7) vs. Carlos Moya (10)

****

WOMEN

* Martina Hingis (1) vs. M. Seles (6)

* Jana Novotna (3) vs. P. Schnyder (11)