Dokic Flags Down Another Win

L.A. Times Archives

June 29, 1999 12 AM PT

<i> From Associated Press</i>

WIMBLEDON, England —

Australian Jelena Dokic, who eliminated top-seeded Martina Hingis in the first round, reached the Wimbledon quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 victory Monday over ninth-seeded Mary Pierce.

The unseeded 16-year-old Dokic--whose play led to a flag-waving demonstration by her father and other Australians--fell behind, 4-1, but won the next five games to take the opening set. She broke Pierce in the seventh game and again in the ninth.

“Getting to the quarterfinals, I think it’s anyone’s tournament,” said Dokic, who was born in Yugoslavia. “You still got Venus [Williams], [Lindsay] Davenport, [Jana] Novotna and Steffi [Graf]--it’s going to be very tough.”

“Beating Martina. . . . and beating Mary today just proved I can beat those top players. It’s great confidence. You’ve got to think you’re unbeatable.”

Her unreliable serve, bothered by strong winds on Court 2, improved throughout the match and her groundstrokes continually kept Pierce deep. Pierce won several early points with clever drop shots, but Dokic took control and fooled Pierce with drop shots of her own.

The key was the seventh game of the first set, when Dokic broke Pierce in a game that went four times to deuce. On one point in the match, Pierce argued a line call for 20 seconds, standing with her arms crossed as she glared at the judge.

With the second set at 3-3, Dokic broke Pierce with four straight points and then broke her again in the ninth game, hitting a backhand winner down the line to clinch the victory.

Meanwhile, on the men’s side, Andre Agassi looked as helpless as everyone else and seemed to be headed to defeat as Wayne Arthurs ran his amazing streak of unbroken service games to 111.

They split two tiebreakers, and might have gone to a few more in their fourth-round match, if not for one particular volley that Arthurs blew and never got over in a 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5), 6-1, 6-4 loss.

It was a sitter waiting to be pummeled into an open court at 1-1 in the third set, but Arthurs whacked it into the net only a few feet away. Agassi seized on that gift as if he knew he might not get another, pounding a backhand return that barely caught the sideline on the next point.

That gave Agassi the break Arthurs had not yielded in six matches going back to the qualifying tournament, and it launched Agassi’s surge into the quarterfinals.

“When you can hit four corners with a range of 30 mph difference, that’s a big serve,” Agassi said of the No. 163-ranked Arthurs, a 28-year-old doubles specialist he had never played and had barely heard of.

The catch, Agassi said, is that Arthurs is a one-trick pony who “doesn’t present much of a presence on the return game. So you feel like it’s just a matter of time before you get a window or two.”

When that window opened, Agassi jumped through for the first of three consecutive breaks that turned the match around.

Agassi will next face Brazil’s Gustavo Kuerten, the former French Open champion, who beat Swiss qualifier Lorenzo Manta, 7-5, 6-4, 5-7, 6-3.

Rain delayed the start of play, wiped out most of the big fourth-round matches, and left Jim Courier eager to retreat as he stood two games from defeat against Britain’s Tim Henman.

Henman, seeking to avenge a loss to Courier in Davis Cup play, led, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5, 4-3, when a downpour stopped play.

Seven-time women’s champion Steffi Graf led qualifier Kim Clijsters, 6-2, 4-2, when that match was halted.

Davenport and defending champion Novotna advanced to a quarterfinal matchup with straight-set victories.

Wimbledon Notes

The pay-cable network HBO announced it will not renew its contract with Wimbledon after a quarter-century of early-round coverage. The bidding to replace HBO should be extremely competitive. Rupert Murdoch and Fox outbid HBO by about $35 million five years ago, but the All England Club decided to stick with HBO instead of going for the larger check. Disney’s ESPN and ABC are also interested, as is Turner and the USA network, which televises the early rounds of the U.S. Open and French Open.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Featured Matches

MEN

* Pete Sampras (1) vs. Daniel Nestor, Canada

* Boris Becker, Germany, vs. Patrick Rafter (2), Australia

* Jim Courier vs. Tim Henman (6), Britain

* Greg Rusedski (9), Britain, vs. Mark Philippoussis (7), Australia

* Todd Martin (8) vs. Goran Ivanisevic (10), Croatia

* Cedric Pioline, France, vs. Karol Kucera (13), Slovakia

****

WOMEN

* Kim Clijsters, Belgium, vs. Steffi Graf (2), Germany