Williams Not to Be Unseated

Venus rising?

On Tuesday, she fell.

Not from the women’s draw at the U.S. Open, where third-seeded Venus Williams defeated eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-4, 1-6, 6-1, for her 24th consecutive victory.

But onto her backside.

It was during a changeover in the third set, and when Williams went to sit down . . .

She missed the chair, collapsing in front of it.

“I couldn’t stop laughing,” Tauziat said. “It was funny.”

Williams also seemed to find it amusing, though at the time it was no laughing matter.

“I was just angry,” she said. “I just couldn’t see.”

Williams, back in the driver’s seat after a sloppy second set, eventually paved her way to the semifinals on a cold and breezy day and will play Martina Hingis of Switzerland on Friday.

The top-seeded Hingis, who defeated Williams in a three-set semifinal here last year before losing to Serena Williams in straight sets in the final, advanced with a 6-0, 7-5 victory Tuesday night over sixth-seeded Monica Seles.

Williams, in addition to her long winning streak, carried an air of invincibility into the U.S. Open after winning her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon two months ago and adding three more titles before arriving in New York.

But she looked surprisingly vulnerable in a third-round victory over Meghann Shaughnessy, and she seemed lost in the second set against Tauziat.

“I thought I had stopped playing tennis like that,” she said. “But once again . . . “

Tauziat, who will be 33 next month and has been playing in Grand Slam tournaments since 1984, knew she had let a great opportunity pass.

“I’m really frustrated right now because I have my chance and I didn’t get it,” she said. “I didn’t play my best tennis in this match.”

Williams, who hasn’t lost since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain beat her in the quarterfinals at the French Open, was frustrated too--and fighting an inner battle to not let her feelings show.

“I was trying hard not to stomp my feet [or] swing my racket around,” she said. “I’m not used to that. Some players show a lot of emotion, but usually I don’t--[I’m] pretty calm and collected, moving on to the next point.

“Today I wasn’t always able to. That was maybe the main battle for me, why I didn’t play well also. I was too busy thinking about the points before, not focusing ahead.”

In the third set, though, Williams regained her focus and broke Tauziat in the second game, crushing a swinging backhand volley from just inside the baseline on match point.

She cruised from there.

Where the charging Tauziat had controlled the points in the second set, she now was lunging at Williams’ blistering passing shots.

Still, she said, Williams is far from unbeatable.

“I don’t know if I can say, but I think if she win the tournament she need to improve her level,” Tauziat said. “I don’t think she going to win if she play like this.”

Later, Hingis took advantage of 33 unforced errors by Seles.

Seles, 2-11 against Hingis, had lost 14 pounds in a training regimen since losing their last meeting, 6-0, 6-0, at Miami five months ago.

But her lighter frame didn’t help as Hingis ripped through the first set in 14 minutes.

Seles is 46-0 this year against all but the top four players on the WTA Tour, but her latest loss left her 0-10 against the top four.

And, over the last two years, she is 0-6 against Hingis.

Hingis, though, was not surprised that Seles rallied.

“The last [few] times we played, I always beat her,” Hingis said. “You know, the pressure is on me: How can you do [compared to] when you played her the last time? Was it an accident, or are you really that much better?

“You never know with Monica. It’s like you go out there, and I kind of like her game, so I expected it. . . . It was kind of a little test: Is it enough against Monica, or will it be enough against Venus?”

Williams, of course, has been on Hingis’ mind since after her first-round match, when Hingis said, in response to a reporter’s question, that she would not consider using any potentially harmful supplements in an effort to keep up with the more powerful Williams sisters.

“I watched her like almost every single match she played here,” Hingis said of Williams, who is 6-9 against Hingis but has won three of the last four matches, the most recent in the quarterfinals at Wimbledon. “It’s like, OK, you try to watch and figure out a few things.”

So, is Venus vulnerable?

“You could see that,” Hingis said. “But, I mean, how many matches, like 24 by now, that she hasn’t lost? She’s obviously very confident going into these matches. Even not playing at her best, she still wins them.”

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Martin a Winner

Todd Martin prevails over Carlos Moya to advance to the quarterfinals. Page 10

Today’s Featured Matches

* Arnaud Clement, France, vs. Lleyton Hewitt (9), Australia

* Elena Dementieva, Russia, vs. Anke Huber (10), Germany

* Serena Williams (5) vs. Lindsay Davenport (2)

* Pete Sampras (4) vs. Richard Krajicek, Netherlands