Davenport Out Again, but She’s Not Down

MELBOURNE, Australia — Old news: Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Lindsay Davenport at the Australian Open, doing so for the third time in the last four years.

New news: Davenport, who will turn 30 in June, is leaving a Grand Slam event feeling confident that she will be back for another shot next year. Usually, these departures are tinged with doubts about her future in the game, especially considering her drought at the majors has hit six years.

Not so, this time.

The eighth-seeded Henin-Hardenne, of Belgium, defeated the top-seeded Davenport, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3, in 1 hour 57 minutes, on a cool blustery night at Melbourne Park in the quarterfinal Tuesday. Henin-Hardenne remains a confounding matchup for Davenport, of Laguna Beach, who has not defeated her since 2002, a span of five completed matches.

“It is [disappointing],” said Davenport, last year’s finalist, who hurt her cause by serving only one ace. “Worked really hard. And then just to get out there and play well, then slowly get worse as the match went on is a bad feeling to have when you leave.”

Davenport injured her left ankle earlier in the event and spent the time after her fourth-round match staying off it, and icing it. She said the ankle didn’t affect her against Henin-Hardenne, but she neglected to chase down a couple of drop shots.

If there was ever a time to finally beat Henin-Hardenne again, this may have been it. Because of injuries limiting her since the French Open last year, the Belgian has been blowing the dust off her game. She hit 11 double faults and seemed overwhelmed by Davenport’s power in the first set, but changed things up going down the line more often off both sides.

“Before arriving in Sydney, I was telling to myself I was coming here to play a lot of matches,” said Henin-Hardenne, who won that tune-up event. “But I was coming in Australia to get my confidence back, take the rhythm of the competition. But I’m surprising myself a little bit.”

Despite the continuing problems against Henin-Hardenne and injuries late in Slam events, Davenport sounded rejuvenated in regard to her future. Perhaps it is a byproduct of her association with David DiLucia, who came on board after she persuaded him to coach her late last year. And she was able to play in front of her husband, Jon, who arrived in the middle of the tournament, and her mother, Ann Davenport.

“I feel like I’m on a good path,” she said. “While things didn’t pan out here, I’m not giving up. I still feel like I’ve done some things better in the last month, didn’t do the things I needed to do tonight. I’m not going to run away from it because it didn’t happen in this one match.”

She was asked whether she would have felt the same way back in 2004, about still being here in 2006.

“No way,” Davenport said, laughing. “You learn a lot as you get older. Certainly seeing some other players and what they’ve been able to accomplish a bit later in their careers has helped me.

“But I still enjoy it. I went through a period where I wasn’t enjoying it. For whatever reason, I developed a love for the game again.”

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Third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France reached the semifinals here for the second time. She needed 52 minutes against No. 7 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland today in the quarterfinals, winning, 6-3, 6-0.

Mauresmo, who lost in the final here in 1999, broke Schnyder’s serve six times and had 13 unforced errors.