AMELIA ISLAND, Florida - World No 1 Lindsay Davenport dug deep to beat a resurgent Venus Williams 1-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Amelia Island Championship today.
The defending champion and top seed looked on her way out as she was blitzed in the first set but
she rallied to secure victory and take her place in the last four against seventh seed Nadia Petrova of Russia.
"She definitely played well in the first set," Davenport said. "I got a bit lucky in the second, I was down 15-40 a couple of times and managed to pull out two sets without really playing that well."
For 25 minutes it was vintage Venus.
Full of confidence after her win over sister Serena on her way to the semi-finals in Miami last week, Venus left Davenport reeling with a succession of winners.
The fifth seed had completed a rain-delayed win over Polish qualifier Marta Domachowska earlier, but it did not seem to affect her as she romped through the opening set.
As the second set wore on, Venus began to make mistakes and Davenport levelled the match and then broke to lead 3-2 in the decider.
Venus had Davenport at 0-40 on her serve in the eighth game but the world No 1 held her nerve and served out two games later to seal victory.
"I think I just made mistakes at the wrong time," Venus said. "I feel like I played well, it was one of my best matches this year, everything's getting better."
Virginie Razzano of France continued her giant-killing run, following up her second-round win over fourth seed Alicia Molik with two more victories over seeded players as organisers sought to catch up after Thursday's play was hit by rain.
The world No 54 ousted number 13 Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-4 6-7 7-5 and then stunned sixth seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia 6-4 6-4.
In the semi-finals, she'll meet either Serena Williams, the second seed, or 12th-seeded Italian Silvia Farina Elia.
Second seed Serena fought off former champion Mary Pierce to reach the quarter-finals.
The Australian Open champion came from 5-1 down in a tiebreak to win the first set and then broke in the seventh game of the second to win 7-6 6-4 and set up a clash with Italian Silvia Farina Elia, the 12th seed, in the last eight.
Seventh seed Petrova booked her place in the semi-finals after beating Japanese 15th seed Shinobu Asagoe 6-0 0-6 6-2.
Asagoe had earlier caused the biggest upset of the event as she shocked third seed and French Open champion Anastasia Myskina of Russia.
Myskina came from 4-1 down in the second set to force a tiebreak and then saved three match points but Asagoe held on, before going down to Petrova in a topsy-turvy match later in the day.
Farina Elia beat Australian Open semi-finalist Patty Schnyder, the eighth seed, 4-6 6-1 6-4 to set up her quarter-final against Serena.
- REUTERS
AMELIA ISLAND, Florida - World No 1 Lindsay Davenport dug deep to beat a resurgent Venus Williams 1-6 6-3 6-4 to reach the semi-finals of the Amelia Island Championship today.
The defending champion and top seed looked on her way out as she was blitzed in the first set but
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