Serena Has the Power

This weirdly wonderful U.S. Open took another turn into the house of games Tuesday. The second week of a Grand Slam was supposed to be about sport, and while that unfolded, the strangeness continued.

A couple periods of rain was followed by an attack of flying insects at night. Once the rain moved on and the insects cleared out, two stellar displays of disciplined shot-making unfolded at Arthur Ashe Stadium.

Serena Williams, the champion in 1999, erased the bitter memory of a quarterfinal loss here last year to Lindsay Davenport, reversing the result.

Despite squandering two match points in the second-set tiebreaker, the 10th-seeded Williams defeated No. 3 Davenport, 6-3, 6-7 (7), 7-5, in 2 hours 14 minutes.

Williams was followed by another 19-year-old, Andy Roddick. Roddick, playing in only his second Open, defeated Tommy Robredo of Spain, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4, in the fourth round, needing an hour and a half. He will play either Lleyton Hewitt of Australia or Tommy Haas of Germany in the quarterfinals.

The Hewitt-Haas match was stopped in the second set because of rain and will resume this morning, with Haas leading, 6-3, 2-2.

Roddick joked that he hoped Hewitt and Haas would tire each other out. “I don’t believe it. I’m supposed to wake up any minute now or something,” said Roddick, trying to become the youngest U.S. Open men’s champion. “But I’m going to try to stay asleep.”

Williams and Roddick had something to shout about and they did. Roddick bent over, stood up, yelled and smacked a ball into the stands. Williams too, unleashed some pent-up emotion, letting loose a scream, pumped her fists and later shouted, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

“I’m tired of losing close matches,” said Williams, who also said hello to her sisters into the camera as well as her boyfriend LaVar Arrington of the Washington Redskins. “So I was a bit elated.”

It hasn’t been easy being Serena. She has yet to reach a Slam final since winning here two years ago, and found herself losing a series of tight matches. Her tendency to do this also surfaced last month in Manhattan Beach. Williams squandered six match points in a quarterfinal loss to Monica Seles.

Maybe the Seles match changed something. Since then, Williams is on a 10-match winning streak. In the semifinals, she will play No. 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland, who had little trouble in a 6-2, 6-0 quarterfinal victory over Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic. The 18-year-old Bedanova practiced with Hingis in Switzerland, and Hingis appeared proud of her protege.

“She was in my home,” Hingis said. “She’s like my little pupil, you know.”

It seemed Bedanova reminded Hingis of, well, herself.

“I was actually surprised today,” Hingis said. “It’s like the balls are actually coming at me at a slower pace. They’re long and deep. But still, I welcome this game with open arms. You don’t see that too often from a youngster. She’s more of a strategy player than a hard hitter. That’s very unusual these days.”

Slower pace are not words Davenport or Williams would understand.

For Davenport, it was her earliest Open exit since 1996. She has not won a Slam since the 2000 Australian Open.

“I haven’t lost in the quarters in a pretty long time,” she said. “It’s been seven Slams now since I won one. It’s not the end of the world.”

Davenport saved two match points in the tiebreaker, one with a sizzling backhand winner. The third-set momentum turned back to Williams, who took a 3-0 lead and had points for 4-0. Davenport erased the deficit and got back on serve.

But in her final two service games, Williams allowed only one break point and fought it off, at 4-4, when Davenport sent a passing shot wide under pressure. Three games later, Williams broke Davenport at 30, on her third match point, with a terrific forehand cross-court winner.

There were a couple of interested observers in the women’s locker room. Doubles partners Jennifer Capriati and Hingis were closely watching the match and laughing about their odd doubles quarterfinal.

Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs beat Capriati and Hingis on the Grandstand and the four were plagued by flying insects.

The insects invaded the Grandstand and also surged into the neighboring Louis Armstrong Stadium where Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil was beating Albert Costa of Spain.

They went hard after Kuerten and Costa, too, maybe thinking Kuerten’s curly mop was a nest. “One flew in my mouth,” Capriati said.

The insects were gone by the time Roddick showed up. Anyway, he might have taken out a few with his serve. His fastest was 141 mph, third-fastest ever at the Open. He needed one match point, finishing with a 133-mph ace.

Afterward, Roddick was emotional when he talked about a personal situation.

The father-in-law of his coach, Tarik Benhabiles, was involved in a serious accident in France and remains in serious condition.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tournament At a Glance

WOMEN

Today’s quarterfinals: Jennifer Capriati (2) vs. Amelie Mauresmo (8); Kim Clijsters (5) vs. Venus Williams (4).

*

MEN

Today’s quarterfinals: Mariano Zabaleta vs. Marat Safin (3); Andre Agassi (2) vs. Pete Sampras (10).

Featured Matches

Day session: Tommy Haas (16), Germany, vs. Lleyton Hewitt (4), Australia (Haas leads 6-3, 2-2); Mariano Zabaleta, Argentina, vs. Marat Safin (3), Russia; Kim Clijsters (5), Belgium, vs. Venus Williams (4).

Night session: Jennifer Capriati (2) vs. Amelie Mauresmo (8), France; Andre Agassi (2) vs. Pete Sampras (10).