Great Expectations Fall Just a Bit Short

What had the potential to be an electrifying day of tennis at Wimbledon came up a few shots shy of memorable Monday.

Not that Lleyton Hewitt of Australia and Lindsay Davenport didn’t try their best, albeit unintentionally, to push things in that direction in the fourth round.

Third-seeded Hewitt, unusually, squandered two match points in the third set and needed another set to finish off Taylor Dent of Newport Beach, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (7), 6-3. Top-seeded Davenport, of Laguna Beach, blew a match point in the second set by pushing a backhand just long and lost the second-set tiebreaker but rallied to defeat No. 15 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, 6-3, 6-7 (4), 6-3.

There was no shortage of comebacks on the grounds, starting with a predictable, emotion-laden all-Russian encounter: No. 9 Anastasia Myskina survived two match points in the second set, beating No. 6 Elena Dementieva, 1-6, 7-6 (9), 7-5. No. 8 Nadia Petrova of Russia also fought off two match points, surviving a roller-coaster contest against Kveta Peschke of the Czech Republic, 6-7 (5), 7-6 (7), 6-3.

Top-seeded Roger Federer of Switzerland and No. 2 Andy Roddick each were forced to a tiebreaker but won in straight sets. Federer beat Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 (6), and Roddick defeated No. 15 Guillermo Coria of Argentina, 6-3, 7-6 (1), 6-4.

And there would be no sweep of the Williams sisters on Court 2 by Jill Craybas of Huntington Beach. Venus Williams won the first set in 21 minutes against Craybas, and looked convincing, winning, 6-0, 6-2. Craybas said she has been suffering from a stomach muscle injury since the second round.

“I think it’s probably a big challenge to play both Serena and I in a row,” Venus said. “So, I guess I had a good position to be second sister.”

Missing Monday was a buzz-creating moment at the All England Club -- the stunning upset of a marquee player, which is what happened Saturday when Craybas beat Serena Williams in straight sets in the fading light.

Even Davenport-Clijsters, which featured terrific baseline exchanges and massive shifts of momentum, ended limply. Clijsters, who had served only one double fault, had three in the final game, including one on match point.

“A lot of people that I’ve seen after the match, everybody is saying this should have been the final,” Clijsters said.

Davenport saw it differently, which makes sense because she will be back in action today in a quarterfinal, trying to avoid a letdown.

“It feels like it was a big match, a match that I was looking forward to for the whole tournament when I saw the draw,” she said, adding “I don’t know about a final, but maybe a little bit later than a round of 16.”

Davenport’s quarterfinal opponent will be No. 5 Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, who beat Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-4, 6-3. Davenport lost to Kuznetsova in last year’s U.S. Open semifinals, two rounds after beating Venus Williams.

“I had some great chances last year,” Davenport said. “You play a match, the same thing after the U.S. Open, this match that you’ve been really striving to win, and then you realize, ‘Gosh, I’m still only in the quarters.’ ”

Davenport-Clijsters followed Hewitt-Dent on Centre Court. Dent lost his first two service games, falling behind 4-0 in 13 minutes, then managed to play his way into it. But he committed a major mistake, stopping play in one rally on one of his break points late in the second set.

And so, Hewitt seemed on his way to a relatively routine victory, reaching double match point in the third-set tiebreaker. He led 6-4 in the tiebreaker, on his serve, and missed the first one by netting a backhand passing shot. Dent erased the second with a low backhand volley.

Controversy surfaced in the fourth set when Dent challenged the chair umpire, Enric Molina, who overruled and corrected himself. “That was not good,” Dent said. “Whether the call was bad or not, you should stick with it.”

Dent continued that theme in his post-match news conference. “I don’t know if the situation got to him,” Dent said. “If he’s intimidated by Hewitt or whatever. He handled that situation poorly.”

Does Hewitt intimidate the umpires? Hewitt says not, and Dent disagreed.

“I haven’t played him or noticed that enough, but his personality is indicative to doing that,” Dent said. “He’s fired up, he’s yelling. I don’t know what he said to one of the linesmen out there today, but I heard the crowd was kind of, ‘Oooh.’ That’s intimidating.”

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Alexa Glatch of Newport Beach, seeded 13th in the junior girls event, survived an epic in her first round, beating Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia. She won 13-11 in the third set, surviving two match points and an underhanded serve from her opponent at 11-11. Glatch lost that point.

“She tried something different, and it worked,” Glatch said. “Definitely not expecting that, never had a player do that.”