Davenport Finally Meets Her Match

The weight of a Grand Slam streak and great expectations upon her shoulders wasn’t the reason top-seeded Lindsay Davenport of Newport Beach unexpectedly exited from the Australian Open in the semifinals.

Rather, it was an imposing set of shoulders across the net that inflicted the damage. Nineteen-year-old Amelie Mauresmo of France was impressive, looking like she wandered on to the court on her way to racing the best 200-meter butterfly swimmers in the world.

But that power, combined with a beguiling topspin backhand, was enough for the unseeded Mauresmo to pull off the upset of the tournament, as she defeated Davenport, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, on Thursday in 1 hour 56 minutes. It ended Davenport’s 12-match Grand Slam winning streak, which started at the U.S. Open.

For Davenport, the loss will have some haunting elements, considering she squandered a 4-2 lead in the third set. The defeat, however, does not mean she will lose her No. 1 ranking to Martina Hingis.

“Every time I got my foot through the door, I thought I was going to the end, it was sort of shut on my foot,” Davenport said. “So, it’s disappointing. I haven’t had a match slip through my hands in a long time. It’s a tough one to swallow in the semifinals.”

In Saturday’s final, Mauresmo will play two-time defending champion and second-seeded Hingis of Switzerland. Hingis defeated sixth-seeded Monica Seles, 6-2, 6-4, in the other semifinal, ending Seles’ 33-0 run at the Australian Open.

It is the first time an unseeded player reached the final of a Grand Slam since Venus Williams in 1997 at the U.S. Open. Mauresmo, in fact, was forced to qualify at an Australian tuneup event in Sydney, and she survived two match points in her opening round here against American Corina Morariu.

“When I came back from match point, my coach told me that usually when it happens like this, players are winning the tournament or going very far,” said Mauresmo, smiling. “So I guess he was right. Of course, I thought about it and now I play, how you say, I just let it go. And it’s going on well.”

Davenport could not be accused of taking Mauresmo lightly. She lost to the youngster on clay in Berlin before last year’s French Open, 6-2, 6-4, and said on Thursday she could not believe Mauresmo is 19 because of her strength and size.

“If you look close at her, she’s a very, very strong girl,” Davenport said. “A very talented player and mentally she had gotten better. She was very tough to play out there. A couple of times, I thought I was playing a guy--she was hitting so hard, and so strong.

“I would look over there and she’s so strong, and those shoulders.”

When was the last time the powerful Davenport felt intimidated by someone else’s shots?

“She hits the ball, not like any other girl,” Davenport said. “She hits so hard with so much topspin. Women’s tennis is not normally played like that.”

Clearly, the days of moonball tennis have been mothballed.

The topic of Mauresmo’s shoulders became the theme of the semifinal day.

“Her shoulders look huge to me,” Davenport said. “I think they must have grown. Maybe it was because she was wearing a tank top.”

Hingis, naturally, had something to say.

“Serena [Williams] has got bigger shoulders,” she offered.

Mauresmo was flattered by the comments.

“Perhaps the fact that I’m strong physically is maybe impressing her,” she said of Davenport. “It means that I’m a very solid player, so I take it as a compliment.”

Her power is obviously the key. “[It helps] the one that stays longer on the court,” Mauresmo said. “For the serve and also for my whole game I need to feel very powerful physically.”

Berlin may have been on a different surface, and a much lesser tournament, but the previous encounter against Davenport did pay off in a sense.

“I knew I could do it. The biggest thing was that I knew I could beat her,” Mauresmo said.

Her belief carried her through the difficult moments of the third set when her backhand went awry. Davenport broke her in the fifth game of the third set at 30 and consolidated the break by holding her own serve.

Then it changed as the inexperienced teenager looked like the veteran. Mauresmo won five of the final six games of the match and started picking up the pace of her own serve.

Most impressively, she served three aces in the ninth game of the third set to take a 5-4 lead. Later, the significance of the moment barely rattled Mauresmo as she won it on her second match point, breaking Davenport at 15 in the 12th game.

“I was surprised at how well she started serving at the end,” Davenport said. “She served well in the second set, not so well in the beginning of the third. And then, you think at the end of the third, someone might serve worse in the match. But I couldn’t touch some of those at the end.

The match was sealed with a sensational shot. Mauresmo lined up and hit a sizzling backhand passing shot down the line.

Mauresmo had never been past the third round of a Grand Slam and the implications of her victory had not hit her, even after the match.

“I think I don’t really realize it now,” she said. “I’m going to play the last match on Saturday and think about it after the tournament. I just keep my mind clear.”