Kournikova Gets Advance for Her Work on Tauziat

For Nathalie Tauziat, the benefits of writing a provocative book were immediately obvious. Her up-close-and-personal account of life on the women’s tennis tour made a big media splash in France, selling about 40,000 copies and counting.

The downside?

If not haunting her, her words have hurt her months later. The latest boomerang came Friday at the Acura Classic. Anna Kournikova of Russia defeated the sixth-seeded Tauziat for the first time in four matches, winning the 1-hour 54-minute quarterfinal, 2-6, 6-4, 7-5, at La Costa Resort and Spa. She will play in the semifinals today against fourth-seeded Monica Seles, a 4-6, 6-2, 7-6 (5) winner Friday night over eighth-seeded Sandrine Testud of France. Third-seeded Venus Williams will face Amy Frazier in the other semifinal.

But the presence of the telegenic teenager Kournikova in the semifinals was a much-needed boost for this event, which lost the top two players in the world on consecutive days, Martina Hingis on Thursday and Lindsay Davenport on Wednesday.

Kournikova took out Davenport by exactly the same score, a well-deserved win. But Friday, she admitted the Tauziat victory was especially rewarding, saying: “She has made strange remarks about me, and so that makes it even better.”

In reality, Tauziat was quite complimentary of Kournikova in her book, pointing out she was a victim of the system that has been created to reward looks ahead of results. Hardly earth-shattering material, but it created a stir during the French Open and Wimbledon. It gave the tabloids and other British newspapers yet another reason to run more pictures of Kournikova, and some of the comments in the book were interpreted incorrectly and out of context.

“She has a translation, I don’t know if it’s a good one,” Tauziat said. “I like Anna. She’s pretty nice on the court. What I said in the book is that there is too much commercialism outside tennis. . . . The journalists like to translate to make the players fight. It depends on how the players take what I said. I said the truth. They like it or they don’t like it.”

Kournikova seemed bothered that the words came from an insider on the tour.

“Everybody has a right to their opinion, just not so outspoken,” she said. “I can say a lot of things, obviously, I know a lot of things going on. I think those things should be kept private, and she’s a professional tennis player.

“You would think only the journalists would dig everything [up], trying to find something. But a player on the tour, it’s very hard to understand.”

She wasn’t the only one. Three French players, Amelie Mauresmo, Julie Halard-Decugis and Testud--upset about the book--went to the national federation and said they would not play in Sydney if Tauziat was on the Olympic team, Testud told a French reporter. So, the French Federation dropped Tauziat, even though at No. 8 she is the highest-ranked player of the group.

Tauziat, who, at 32, may retire at the end of 2000, is appealing the decision in France. The official reason was that she did not have strong results outside of the indoor season.

“I think I deserve to be in the Olympics,” she said. “That [the book] is the reason they changed the rules. It was the pressure of the players.”

For these reasons, a Testud-Tauziat semifinal may have had some interesting implications. But Kournikova’s newfound mental toughness pulled her through in a classic battle between a serve-and-volleyer (Tauziat) and baseliner (Kournikova). Kournikova didn’t lose her serve in the second and third sets, faced only two breakpoints, and won it on her third match point by ripping a hard passing shot at Tauziat. It clipped the net, jamming Tauziat, who pushed a backhand volley long.

Her semifinal opponent, Seles, also had a lengthy quarterfinal, lasting 2 hours 9 minutes. Testud, who rallied from a 5-3 third-set deficit, had a match point when serving at 6-5 but just missed a forehand crosscourt wide.

In the tiebreaker, Testud led, 5-4, and lost the final three points as she double-faulted, netted a forehand and hit a backhand wide. Seles and Testud both required medical attention afterward.

Testud has had her upper right thigh taped during matches, and Seles was treated for a blister on her left hand.

“It was a very tough match,” Seles said. “It was a difference between one or two balls. At the end it was total luck.”

The third-set tiebreaker was a lot like the rest of the match, featuring big swings of momentum.

“It was just a point here and a point there,” Testud said. “It makes all the difference. I double-faulted and then on a forehand I was a little nervous and that’s it.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Featured Matches

Matches today on the stadium court at the Acura Classic:

1 P.M. MATCH

* Amy Frazier vs. Venus Williams

7 P.M. MATCH

* Monica Seles vs. Anna Kournikova