top seeds sprouting

Dementieva leaps up, Jen pulls out
Venus on the Lindsay rematch: ‘My limit is 100 hours so if we get to a hundred hours she can win the match’

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Fred Mullane/Camerawork USA

Elena Dementieva defeats Kuznetsova and Venus Williams will take on Davenport.

FROM THE JPMORGAN CHASE OPEN IN CARSON. CALIF. – Elena Dementieva was so thrilled with her 5-7, 6-2, 6-2 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals Friday that she dropped to one knee and let out a loud yell after the victory. She overcame a strain in the top of her right foot at 1-2 in the second set and after that, Dementieva wore Kuznetsova down from the ground. She was faster, far more accurate, better from the forehand side and gave Kuznetsova fits with her soft yet swerving slice serve.

It’s her mother Vera’s birthday and she wrapped a present up tightly and called it in. Vera, who usually travels with her, is at home in Moscow. "I really wanted to win today and make my mother happy, so I went out there and fought for every point," Dementieva said. "I was stronger than she was physically. Her forehand is very good, but today, I didn’t have a problem with it."

Dementieva avenged a 6-4 in the third set loss to Kuznetsova back in Berlin in May. She’ll play Serena Williams and will have to play much better than she did when she faced her in the NASDAQ-100 final back in March, when she blown out 6-1, 6-1. She’s about as good as anyone once she gets in a rally, but getting there during her serve is very difficult.

Believe it or not, she and her coach, Olga Morozova, aren’t going over slice serves in practice. It's all flat serves and kickers, where Elena has to throw the ball a few inches to the left, instead of three feet to the right, which she often does with her slice. "I don’t know when I will use the [kick] in a match, but I'm confidant in my first serve,’ she said. "But Olga and I also working on ending the points much quicker, maybe one to three shots."

Lindsay Davenport’s roll through California continues. She crushed a listless No. 7 Nadia Petrova 6-1 6-1 to earn herself a rematch with Venus Williams of their Stanford final. The 28-year-old Davenport has won seven matches in a row and looks as good as she ever has. "I cannot be anything but happy with where I’m at," Davenport said. "I’m playing really well. I did what I wanted to do and any time you beat a top 10 player that easily, it’s a great win."

The major question for Davenport in Saturday’s semis will employ against Venus, who predictably defeated Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-1. Will she use the same one she did on Sunday at Stanford which was to pound the forehand until it melts? Sounds like it. "I know she’ll be out for revenge. I've always said with Venus that if she's got all her shots working she's tough to beat. I'll have to try to break down her forehand again and see how that goes."

Venus won’t go into her what her strategy will be, but did say that she’s not going to hit 500 forehands on Saturday morning to tighten up her weaker side. She allegedly made 73 unforced errors last Sunday and at least 50 of those came from her forehand, but she only lost the contest 7-4 in the third set breaker and can’t imagine a similar breakdown."My whole goal is to make less errors," she said. "Any time someone plays [me] that have to hope [I] play badly to win. I’m not hoping she plays bad , I’m not hoping she plays good, I’m not hoping her forehand or backhand breaks down or whatever. I pretty much focused on what I have to do."

The two played two hours and 53 minutes on Sunday and given their fragile health, a similar marathon would test both of them. But Venus is feeling like she’s in tremendous shape. "My limit is 100 hours so if we get to a hundred hours she can win the match," Venus said.

WATCHING THE TENNIS ON THE TENNIS CHANNEL
This tennisreporters.net reporter had an opportunity to watch The Tennis Channel for the first time in Carson. It’s a perfect medium for tennis wonks to be able to watch wall to wall coverage. It is not littered with the extraneous garbage so often found on other networks. But what’s up with the pre-match scouting reports? The reports on the Dementieva-Kuznetsova and Davenport-Petrova match-ups were flat out wrong in parts. As Dementieva's win over Kuznetsova showed, there is no way, at the TTC said, that Kuzy has a better forehand than her elder countrywoman, Yes, she has a better inside out forehand that Elena, but she does not have a better down the line, crosscourt or return. Petrova earned almost no points in her report, only getting a check for movement. She and Davenport’s backhands are arguably even and Petrova is a certainly a better volleyer when she gets to net, which isn’t often enough. Of course, after watching the 6-1, 6-1 wipeout, it was hard to find any strengths in Petrova’s game. Maybe the TTC and Katrina Adams were dead on .… Bad luck for the TTC. ESPN 2 grabbed the Venus-Lindsay semi away from them. Of course, there's always the dubs.

Jennifer Capriati has pulled out of next week’s Acura Classic in Carlsbad with a right hamstring pull, the same injury that took her out of this week’s JPMorgan Chase. Sources tell Tr.net that she’s also bothered by a bad back but has been working out as much as possible in Santa Monica. The seventh-ranked Capriati is still entered in Montreal, which begins August 2. The tournament still features the Williams sisters, Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova, French Open titlist Anastasia Myskina and imagine this – Amelie Mauresmo, who’s finally made it to California for a summer tournament. … A wire report has it that Anna Smashnova-Pistolesi may not play the Olympics due to a clothing conflict with the Israeli team.