MELBOURNE - An out-of-sorts world number one Lindsay Davenport overcame a poor start to beat 19th seed Nathalie Dechy 2-6 7-6 6-4 on Thursday and reach her second Australian Open final.
The 2000 champion survived a second successive scare -- she who was also pushed to the limits by Australian
Alicia Molik in Wednesday's quarter-final -- and will play seventh seed and 2003 champion Serena Williams in an all-American final on Saturday.
"I got a little yesterday and today, but I'll take it," a relieved Davenport said in a television interview.
Davenport had her left thigh heavily strapped and got off to a sluggish start, gifting the Frenchwoman the first set in only 24 minutes with a string of uncharacteristic errors in front of a stunned Rod Laver Arena centre court crowd.
The American's serve had helped her get past Molik but it went missing on important points against Dechy as she served 10 double faults, eight of them in the first two sets.
Dechy, who had never previously made it past the fourth round of a grand slam in 11 years, shut Davenport out early from the back of the court and occasionally ventured to the net to wrong-foot the slow-moving American.
Davenport battled her way back into the second set, but even then made things difficult for herself with more errors -- her final unforced error count was 52 to Dechy's 29.
Davenport twice served for the second set. In the 10th game she double faulted twice and Dechy levelled at 5-5.
The American broke back immediately before serving for the match at 6-5, but again double-faulted on set point to let Dechy back in and the Frenchwoman smacked two clear winners to force the tiebreak.
Dechy was within two points of victory at 5-5 in the tiebreak but herself succumbed to the pressure by handing Davenport the decider 7-5 with a double fault.
Davenport cut down her error rate in the third set and went 4-2 up when she broke Dechy's serve on a backhand error by the Frenchwoman.
But she gave back the advantage immediately in the next game, serving another double fault to hand Dechy two break points.
Guadeloupe-born Dechy played her worst service game of the match in the final game, handing Davenport three match points with a string of errors and surrendering her serve to love.
The world number 25 had upset third seed and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina in the fourth round, then battled past 12th seed Patty Schnyder for her best performance in her 36th successive grand slam event stretching back to the 1996 French Open.
- REUTERS
Top seed Lindsay Davenport of the U.S. celebrates after winning her semi-final match against France's Nathalie Dechy at the Australian Open today. Picture / Reuters
MELBOURNE - An out-of-sorts world number one Lindsay Davenport overcame a poor start to beat 19th seed Nathalie Dechy 2-6 7-6 6-4 on Thursday and reach her second Australian Open final.
The 2000 champion survived a second successive scare -- she who was also pushed to the limits by Australian
AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.