VEnus HURTS WRIST

Serena to face Davenport in final
Roddick v. Kiefer in Indy

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Susan Mullane/Camerawork USA

Serena is 9-2 against Davenport.

FROM THE JPMORGAN CHASE OPEN IN CARSON, CALIF. – Unlike in 2002 and the first half of 2003 when a Serena v. Venus final was all but guaranteed when the sisters were on the opposite sides of the draw, no such feel permeated the suddenly popular Home Depot Center on Saturday. Not with the physically fragile Venus coming off a final round loss to Lindsay Davenport at Stanford and Serena not having won a tournament since March.

Had Venus not injured her wrist and forced to retire with a wrist injury at 7-5, 2-0 down to Lindsay Davenport, she may very well have had a chance to avenge her losing streak to Serena. But reality is what it is and instead, the red-hot Davenport will now get to a chance to stop her four-match losing streak to Serena, who again struggled but showed a champion’s mettle when the big points came in her 6-3 7-6 (2) victory over Elena Dementieva Saturday.

Whether it was Serena Bobblehead Night on Friday or fireworks on Saturday evening that attracted the record crowds, or just the chance Serena and a more known Dementieva is hard to say, but it’s fairly safe to opine now that after watching 7,963 fans come through the door on Saturday night for the Williams-Dementieva match that women’s tennis has settled in with a bang at the Home Depot Center.

Serena isn’t moving that quickly and certainly isn’t returning with authority that she once had, but her serve is beginning to click and she’s a very smart player. She’s not hitting herself out of matches and is still more secure at crunch time than the likes of Dementieva, who played an awful tiebreaker to end the entertaining one-hour, 39-minute contest.

But take note: Serena isn’t happy with her play.

"I’m really rough on the edges, but hopefully by the time the US Open comes, I’ll be better," said Williams, who nailed 36 winners to 18 from Dementieva. "I’m playing at 30 percent of my potential. You’d be shocked and on the floor at what I could do….There’s so much I’m going to do in the now. Before I wasn’t ready. But now I am. I get away with a lot because of my athleticism. I need to do more."

Other than double faulting 15 times and on all four of the game points she was broken, Dementieva didn’t serve that badly. She was a lot more confident than when Serena crushed her in NASDAQ-100 final in March and frequently attacked the net, winning 14 of her 19 approaches. She took a tremendous amount of risks and held up fine in rallies, but her concentration still lapsed when she needed to hit the mark. "I played well and pretty aggressive," Dementieva said. "I had chances. When you play against Serena you have to try and create something new, but she played well the whole time."

Davenport – who advanced to her eighth JPMorgan Chase Open final – owns a 2-9 record against Serena and hasn’t beaten her since the 2000 US Open quarterfinals. She’s lost four straight times to Serena, including at the 2001 and 2002 US Opens. The last time they played was on clay in Charleston last year, when Serena beat her 6-1, 7-5.

If she plays Serena, she knows she’ll have to employ a high-risk strategy. In her tight three set loss to Serena on Friday night (which Davenport watched), Vera Zvonareva proved that the still rusty Serena can be dictated to. "I think so, but you never know which Serena will show up," Davenport said. "She’s got such a great serve and shot selection. I’m going to have to serve very well and come up with something special."

Serena knows that Lindsay is playing with more confidence than she is and is aware that if she doesn’t step up her level on Sunday, Davenport will win her second straight title.
"That’s all in the past," Serena said of her good record against Davenport. "Lindsay has a lot of confidence. I have to focus on the now.

Venus May Pull Out of Acura

Siggi Bucher

Lindsay has a shot at her fourth LA crown.

Venus believes she hurt her tendinititis-filled right wrist before practice on Saturday morning when she bent down to tie her shoe. "When I got up I pushed off on it and I tweaked it," said Williams. "Maybe I’m too heavy."
Changing her strategy against Davenport by powering balls at her longtime rival’s backhand, it appeared that Williams would avenge her three-set loss to her fellow Southern California native at Stanford when she leapt out to a 5-0 lead in the first set.

But Williams then lost a tremendous amount of power and accuracy on her strokes and the roof caved in. She called for WTA Tour trainer Catherine Ortega at 4-5 but re-wrapping the bandage on her wrist did her no good.
"At 3-0 I began to have issues with it," Williams said. "I couldn’t control my forehand any more and she could see that and began hitting there. It was tough to hit them over and over again. I got a little tentative and paranoid. She played some good points, but it was more that I couldn’t play anymore. "

The 24-year-old Williams had her wrist examined by Dr. Asghar Husain, who said that it could be a sprain advised her to get tests. She’ll take it day by day and be re-examined on Monday in Los Angeles.

Four-time Grand Slam champion Williams has had bouts of tendonitis in her wrist over the past decade, but said that this injury is not related. She has suffered a barrel full of injuries over the past year, including an abdominal tear that kept her out the last six months of 2003; an ankle sprain that affected her play at the Australian Open; another ankle problem that forced her to pull out before the final of Berlin in May and hurt her preparation for the Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

After two weeks of training and practice at home in Florida, Venus appeared to be coming back into form both at Stanford and in Carson. But playing virtually non-stop since she was in kindergarten appears to be getting the better of her.

She’s scheduled to play the Acura Classic in Carlsbad next week, but has to be considered doubtful. Given that she ruined her season last year by playing through an abdominal tear during the Wimbledon semis and finals in order to prove to fans that she’ll do anything to win a match, Williams could be taking a big risk at Carlsbad. If she further aggravates the injury there, her goals of winning another Olympic gold meal and US Open will likely be dashed.

"I’m hoping it will clear up by then," Venus said. "I’m still positive. My goal this summer was to get into the top 10. If I was healthy today I think for sure I would have won. Right now I’m trying to get better and move to next week. It's not a lot of fun at all. I just want to be healthy and play good tennis. I’m not so happy when I don’t reach my goals. I have to make the smart decision – whatever that me be. I have to be smart because I have the Olympics and US Open coming up and I want to be in top form."

Andy Pulls One Out in the Clutch at Indy

Andy Roddick is going to have a hell of a time defending his perfect 2002 summer hardcourt record, but he’s giving it a good run, fighting off three match points against in his 1-6, 7-6(10), 7-6(3) victory over Ivan Ljubicic. Roddick saved the match points serving at 5-6, 6-7 and 9-10 in the tie-break. " I was pretty fortunate to win the second set breaker and I came up with some big serves when I had to and just one bad serve and that was the difference," Roddick said.

Roddick will face No. 12 seed Nicolas Kiefer , who wasted Frenchman Gregory Carraz 6-2, 6-2. "It’s satisfying the fact that I got through it but if I want to win this tournament I got to step up and play better," Roddick said. He outplayed me for two-thirds of the match and he deserved to win just as much as I did today, but I was luckier."

Kiefer is looking to win his first title of the year in his fourth final -- all the in the US. He is was the runner-up at last week’s Mercedes-Benz (loss to Haas), lost to Joachim Johansson at Memphis and Vince Spadea in Scottsdale.