Time Not Right for Dementieva, Clijsters

The next rung on the tennis ladder proved to be too high, too elusive, and left teenagers Kim Clijsters and Elena Dementieva grabbing nothing but air at the Australian Open.

Progress was put on hold for the two youngsters in less than a 24-hour span. The 19-year-old Dementieva of Russia, admittedly shaky in her first two matches, suffered the indignity of losing to a younger player appearing in her first Australian Open. Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic, who won’t turn 18 until March, beat the ninth-seeded Dementieva, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-3, in one hour 54 minutes in the third round on Saturday night.

Dementieva, a semifinalist at the U.S. Open and Olympic silver medalist, was distraught after losing a 4-2 lead in the second-set tiebreaker. She had to be persuaded to show up at her post-match news conference, but when she arrived no reporters were there to ask her questions, having moved on the Carlos Moya-Lleyton Hewitt match.

For Clijsters, 17, the circumstances behind her loss were different. It came today, one round later, and she certainly was not favored against defending champion and second-seeded Lindsay Davenport.

Her preparation took a hit when she found out her boyfriend, Hewitt, lost an epic five-setter to Moya. Clijsters, who said she did not learn of the result until this morning, seemed flat and lacked her usual tenacity. Davenport took full advantage, beating the 15th-seeded Belgian, 6-4, 6-0, in 56 minutes. Clijsters held serve to cut Davenport’s lead to 5-4 and lost the final seven games of the match.

“I tried to pump myself up. I tried to speak some good words into my head,” Clijsters said. “But it just didn’t feel like I could do it. My legs were not moving like they normally move and I was hitting the ball later than I normally did. I didn’t have the power today.”

Clijsters did not try to find Plan B.

“I always stick to my game,” she said. “You’ll never see me hit moonballs or anything. No, I don’t think that’s a good idea.”

The second set lasted only 19 minutes. Though Davenport may not have hit her top form yet, it didn’t matter that she was four of 14 on break-point opportunities. Davenport will play No. 8 Anna Kournikova of Russia in the quarterfinals, and considering she lost to her in San Diego last August in their last meeting, Davenport will have to tighten that area of her game, converting on those chances.

“It would be nice,” Davenport said. “It seems like it’s haunted me a little bit this tournament. But, you know, hopefully you can do it with just one break a set.”

This is the first time Kournikova has reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam event since she made the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1997. She has taken advantage of a soft part of the draw, beating Barbara Rittner of Germany, 6-3, 6-1, in the fourth round.

“It feels like yesterday actually,” Kournikova said of the 1997 Wimbledon result. “Every time I got to the fourth round of a Grand Slam, I wasn’t really seeded or I was seeded and I always played higher-ranked players. I lost to Lindsay here before or Mary [Pierce] and Martina [Hingis], players that were either winners or got far.”

Kournikova has had trouble taking the next step forward in Grand Slam events. And, at least here, Dementieva and Clijsters faced the difficulty of meeting their expectations.

“You reach a point where you are seeded,” Davenport said. “Then you reach a point where you want to break through in your first big match. This is her [Clijsters] first Grand Slam being seeded. . . . You have to get used to all stages of your career and coming up is the easiest. Then, once you get there, trying to stay there is very hard.”