Williams Less Than Serene as Call Goes Against Her

Serena Williams tossed her racket toward the net at the end of her match Saturday.

It didn’t clear it. Nor did her final backhand when she faced match point against 14th-seeded Sandrine Testud of France after almost two hours on a hot, windy day at the Australian Open.

Testud was giddy, and who wouldn’t be after fighting off two match points?

She escaped once in the ninth game of the third set--Williams netted a backhand--and once more on a controversial overrule five games later. Testud defeated Williams, 6-2, 2-6, 9-7, in a third-round match and will play sixth-seeded Monica Seles in the fourth round.

For the 17-year-old Williams, it was the continuation of her habit of losing big leads. She held two match points against Martina Hingis and lost in a third-set tiebreaker at Lipton last year, and squandered a sizable lead against eventual French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain in the fourth round last spring.

“That’s in the past, you know,” Williams said. “Unlike you, I don’t look in the past. I look in the future.”

But doing exactly that ending up hurting Williams.

“I let a little doubt creep in on my serve,” she said of serving for it at 5-3. “I got a little nervous there. Maybe I was thinking too much ahead in the future. Next-round match, things of that nature.”

Williams thought she received bad calls on both match points.

“I don’t think the bad calls got the best of me,” she said. “In the end, it was a downfall for me, but I don’t think I lost the match because of a bad call. She made some pretty good shots and I didn’t attack the way I should have.

“I didn’t lose the match over a bad call, that would be out of control.”

Testud thought the ball was out on the crucial overrule in the 14th game of the third set.

“‘It was a fast point,” she said. “But the ball was out. I could see the mark.”

Testud was asked if she was surprised by Williams’ racket toss.

“It was a close match. That’s the way it goes, until you finish the last point you never know,” she said. “I guess she was upset, I would have been upset too.”

Two other seeded players escaped difficult third-round matches on Saturday. Seles maintained her perfect record here [31-0] as she defeated Sabine Appelmans of Belgium, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, in a tense struggle featuring 11 service breaks.

“It’s really wonderful,” Seles said of being 31-0. “But now I plan to play again, so I don’t think it’s going to stand for a long time. But even up to now, it’s really great.”

Twelfth-seeded Anna Kournikova of Russia only faltered because she had to worry about the nettlesome task of serving. This time, she double-faulted only 14 times in her 6-4, 2-6, 6-3 victory over Andrea Glass of Germany.

Kournikova, it seems, has become a sympathetic figure because of her on-going attack of the service yips. She has double-faulted 68 times in three matches, including an astounding 31 times in her second-round victory.

Third-round action on the men’s side on Saturday had little drama for once, the day after third-seeded Patrick Rafter of Australia was dispatched in four sets by Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, crushing the hopes of a nation. The country had been waiting for an U.S. Open rematch of Rafter vs. Mark Philippoussis. Instead, the Aussie Philippoussis will have to face Enqvist, who is very much in form.

“It’s just the way it goes,” said Rafter, the two-time defending U.S. Open champion, who has found it difficult to achieve success at home in Australia.

“It’s a loss, nothing I can do about it. Today, he never really gave me a chance. He was just too good for me on the day. There wasn’t much I could do, mate.”

Fifth-seeded Andre Agassi is the highest remaining seed on the men’s side. Agassi, who has not lost a set in three matches, defeated Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1, in 78 minutes.

American qualifier Paul Goldstein’s run ended in a five-set, third-round battle against Andrei Pavel of Romania. Pavel won, 3-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5, 6-3, in 3 hours 10 minutes.

Jim Courier suffered a pulled muscle in his left leg in the third set and came up hobbling against 10th-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia. Kafelnikov won the third-round match, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 3-0 [retired].

“It [the leg] proceeded to get worse, obviously to the point where I couldn’t continue, which is not my nature to stop” Courier said.

Hingis, the two-time defending champion, had an easy time with 15-year-old Jelena Dokic of Australia, a wild card, playing in her first Grand Slam event. Hingis won, 6-1, 6-2, in 48 minutes.

“It’s so funny,” Hingis said. “I mean, it’s like she three years younger than me. She is [born] in ’83. She’s taller than me. I get all the youngsters in the draw. I played [Lilia] Osterloh. She’s my age, I think, and [Elena] Dementievea, and [Jelena] Dokic. Now I feel like a teacher out there, you know, like the veteran.”

The Dokic loss was a disappointing one for the Australians. But at least Australia is having a better tournament than Spain. The final remaining player from Spain is an unlikely one, 65th-ranked Maria Antonia Sanchez Lorenzo, since ninth-seeded Conchita Martinez lost, 7-5, 6-1, to Emilie Loit of France in late third-round action on Friday.

After Sanchez Lorenzo defeated third-seeded Jana Novotna, 6-3, 6-0, in the third round, she called her parents in Spain.

Her mother, also named Maria Antonia, said: “Why are you calling? Did you retire from the match?”

As it turned out, the match in Spain was tape-delayed and the score was 2-1 in the first set, and Maria Antonia broke the news, saying: “No, I won mom.”