Nobody Is Perfect, Not Even Williams In Defeat

For one “practically perfect” set, Venus Williams reminded Lindsay Davenport of the best of Steffi Graf and Monica Seles, a slugging, grunting, gritty player who didn’t give her a chance to breathe.

Davenport’s only hope of reaching the semifinals of the Australian Open on Tuesday was that Williams couldn’t keep drilling back returns faster than the serves she received, couldn’t keep tattooing the lines with groundstrokes, couldn’t catch up to every ball.

So Davenport, the No. 2 seed, swallowed hard after losing that first set in 17 minutes, and began to develop a rhythm of her own, searing the ball deep into the corners, coming forward after them, and slowly, steadily carving out a 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 victory against the 17-year-old Williams.

“I was totally outplayed and totally dominated the first set,” Davenport said. “I had to fight really hard the first two games of the second set, because I could easily have been down 3-love.”

No one has hit the ball as hard and deep against her, Davenport said, except Seles when she was on the top of her game. And no one has beaten her as fast in a set, Davenport added, except Graf.

“The way she played was phenomenal that first set,” said Davenport, who is seeking to add her first Grand Slam title to her most treasured title, the 1996 Olympic gold. “But it’s tough to keep that up. Sometimes you only get worse, and that’s what I hoped would happen.”

Williams saw it the same way.

“In the first set, I played practically perfect tennis, and it’s not the easiest thing to keep that up,” Williams said. “Your opponent is really going to want to say, ‘Hey, I can’t get run through like this.”’

Williams, the U.S. runner-up who was playing the Australian for the first time, couldn’t quite put Davenport away despite chances early in the second set.

Williams had two break points in the first game of the set, but smacked errors to waste both before Davenport held to 1-0. Williams then had a point to tie it on her own serve, but Davenport struck a volley to bring it to deuce, and Williams netted a forehand and double-faulted for the first time to fall behind 2-0.

Davenport then fought off three more break points and held service to 3-0. That was the opening she’d hoped for, a little crack in Williams’ composure, a sign that she wouldn’t simply sweep away the match.

There would be six more breaks of serve in the set, but Davenport was in control now. She reached set point with a sizzling forehand return, and tied the match at a set apiece when Williams’ forehand went wide.

Though Williams broke Davenport to start the third set, her serving troubles continued and Davenport quickly evened it. Williams couldn’t muster the power on serve that she had in previous matches, and Davenport broke her two more times before closing out the match easily on her own serve with the help of three unforced errors by Williams.

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: SPANIARD SURPRISES AGASSI Andre Agassi was rolled out of the Australian Open on a chilly Monday night with a look of utter astonishment. What figured to be a romp turned into a 3-6, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-3 loss to Spain’s Alberto Berasategui, the 5-foot-9 conqueror of U.S. Open champion and No. 2 seed Patrick Rafter two nights earlier. “His speed makes up for the real estate that he gives up. And he just started smacking the ball bigger,” said Agassi. “If you don’t get to his backhand, he’s going to present all sorts of problems to you.”