Dementieva Rallies to Defeat Davenport

For Lindsay Davenport, the start could not have been much worse. She lost the first three games and failed to hold serve in the first set, getting broken four consecutive times.

What in the name of Elena Dementieva was happening? The young Russian was the one ripping return winners and treating Davenport’s serve with disdain.

And the ending was even more painful. Davenport squandered a match point in the third-set tiebreaker and suffered her earliest loss at the U.S. Open since 2001. The sixth-seeded Dementieva, a finalist here last year, defeated No. 2 Davenport, of Laguna Beach, 6-1, 3-6, 7-6 (6), in 2 hours 17 minutes in the quarterfinals Wednesday.

“It was a very tough match,” Dementieva said in her on-court interview. “But I’m just thinking, ‘Why is my favorite score 7-6 in the third?’ ”

In the semifinals, Dementieva will play No. 12 Mary Pierce of France, who defeated countrywoman and No. 3 Amelie Mauresmo, 6-4, 6-1. For Pierce, it is the first time she has made the semifinals here.

“It’s pretty special,” said the 30-year-old Pierce. “I take things a lot differently now than before. I probably would have been all excited and whatever. When you’re younger, it’s normal.”

Davenport was one point away from getting there after breaking Dementieva’s serve to get into the tiebreaker. Dementieva led, 5-2, in the tiebreaker, but Davenport won the next four points to reach match point, serving at 6-5. Dementieva promptly erased it, firing an inside-out forehand winner.

“Geez, she hit a return really deep off a first serve,” Davenport said. “It’s hard to kind of recover. Didn’t get it in very deep, and there’s the end. Went by so fast.”

After saving the match point, Dementieva continued her gambling ways, hitting a drop-shot winner at 6-6 to reach her own match point. She took the match with a backhand winner after a short rally.

Davenport, 29, will probably be reliving her own match point. This comes on top of the Wimbledon final in July when she had a match point against Venus Williams in the third set and went on to lose.

It was a frustrating evening for both women. Though Dementieva did not double fault in the opening set, she had 12 in the final two and frequently lambasted herself in Russian. Davenport berated herself to keep the ball in the court. She committed 56 unforced errors and had 24 winners.

“I did everything I could playing the way that I played and still almost won,” Davenport said. “Obviously, it’s hard to come back in the tiebreak and get up and then end up losing it. But bottom line is you’ve got to play better than that in a quarterfinal.”

Davenport fielded questions about her future and said she would never make a “rash decision.”

Regarding training for the 2006 Australian Open, she said: “I hope that I have that desire in me when the time comes around.”

Whatever happens, at least her father Wink was able to see her play in Grand Slam tournament in person. Her parents are divorced, and Davenport’s mother, Ann, has been at Slams through the years.

“First time he’s been,” she said. “It was nice. Obviously, we’ve had an up-and-down relationship and it definitely meant a lot to me that he was here. He’s obviously very proud of me. It was great. My whole family was here, both my sisters, both my parents, and that was a first.”

Any reason why everybody was here? “I don’t know,” she said, smiling.