Davenport Just Good Enough to Win

Panova or Petrova?

Nadejda or Nadia?

You wouldn’t blame Nadia Petrova of Russia for acquiring something of an identity crisis. For one thing, her picture isn’t even in the WTA media guide. She changed her name earlier this year to Nadia from Nadejda, telling tour officials “it was easier.”

And the 19-year-old from Moscow often gets confused with 24-year-old Tatiana Panova of Moscow. The mix-ups end once you see Petrova play. She is nearly 5 feet 11 and has a powerful array of shots. Panova is 5-3 and wins her matches on her retrieval skills.

Petrova was two nervous tiebreakers away from stepping out of the background. She pushed second-seeded Lindsay Davenport for 1 hour 43 minutes in their second-round match in the Estyle.com Classic on Wednesday at Manhattan Country Club. Davenport won, 7-6 (3), 7-6 (3), and will play another promising teenager, 18-year-old Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic in the round of 16 tonight.

Davenport was fighting her own indifferent, sometime-erratic performance, as well as the potent serve of the 38th-ranked Petrova. Petrova, who reached the fourth round at the French Open and Wimbledon this year, had eight aces, including three in the first-set tiebreaker.

“I was able to get good leads in the tiebreakers. It seemed like she played a lot worse when it got to the tiebreaker,” Davenport said. “It was 3-3 [in the second set tiebreaker] and I won the last four points. She hit a few more second serves.”

Davenport’s body language was negative throughout the match. She bounced her racket several times, tossed it and looked disgusted when she hit a forehand long or blasted a backhand wide.

She had six aces but negated that with six double faults. One of the double faults came on break point in the eighth game of the first set, allowing Petrova to rally.

There have been more ups and downs lately for Davenport, who lost to Kim Clijsters of Belgium in the final at Stanford last month and went out in the semifinals to Venus Williams at Carlsbad on Saturday. She said she was mentally tired because this is her third tournament in as many weeks.

As recently as three years ago, Davenport swept the three California hard-court events. Last year, she reached the finals in two of the three California events.

“My game is funny that way,” she said. “Some days I may not play well, and sometimes I come out the next day and play great.”

She was not the only top player severely challenged. Clijsters, seeded third, avoided a second consecutive second-round loss, defeating Cara Black of Zimbabwe, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, in 1 hour 18 minutes. Top-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland had a considerably easier time, beating No. 15 Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, 6-0, 6-3, in 53 minutes in the round of 16.

Hingis is 7-0 against Likhovtseva and has dropped only one set against her in that stretch.

In other matches, No. 12 Amy Frazier beat Janette Husarova of Slovakia, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in the second round, and No. 7 Elena Dementieva of Russia advanced in a walkover when Kristina Brandi withdrew because of tendinitis in her right wrist.

In the night match, two-time defending champion and No. 4 Serena Williams defeated Nicole Pratt of Australia, 6-3, 6-3, in the round of 16. Williams had 13 aces and only two double faults. In the eighth game of the second set, Williams had four aces, including three consecutive ones.

Pratt, ranked No. 77, was coming off a big win last week in Carlsbad against No. 9 Anna Kournikova. She kept Williams on the court for 65 minutes, forcing her to raise her level of play.

“I felt 10 times better,” said Williams, referring to her shaky opening match on Tuesday. “My serve was a lot better. I worked really hard on my serve, and my ground strokes. I was moving up better today. I wanted to do it yesterday, I really did.

“The scoreline wasn’t what I usually play. But my overall game is a bit better.”

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Featured Matches

10 a.m.: Elena Dementieva, Russia vs. Virginie Razzano, France; Nathalie Tauziat, France vs. Jelena Dokic, Yugoslavia; Alicia Molik, Australia vs. Kim Clijsters, Belgium; Sandrine Testud, France vs. Monica Seles 7 p.m.: Daja Bedanova, Czech Republic vs. Lindsay Davenport