Venus sets up Hingis showdown

13 April 2012

Venus Williams and Martina Hingis will meet tomorrow in the last four of the Australian Open after both survived quarter-final scares in Melbourne today.

Sighs of relief do not come much louder than the one breathed by Williams as she came from 5-3 down in the deciding set to beat South African Amanda Coetzer 2-6, 6-1, 8-6.

But when she returned to the Rod Laver Arena shortly afterwards to watch her sister Serena, she witnessed an even more exciting contest.

Top seed Hingis won the first set 6-2 before the younger of the two Americans battled through a stomach upset to level the match 6-3.

When she then established a 4-1 lead in the third, the Williams sisters appeared to be heading for a repeat of their Wimbledon semi-final last year.

But Hingis won five of the next six games and finally, after a series of twists and turns and thrilling action, the 20-year-old Swiss player got home 8-6 as well.

Hingis said: "I was getting very tired and my serve didn't have the power I wanted but I didn't give up and I feel so good to have come through a match like that."

It was impossible not to feel sympathy for sixth seed Serena. She stretched the world No 1 to the limit and, like Coetzer had been a couple of hours earlier, was three points from winning, only for the punishing rallies to take their toll.

Before dashing off to partner Venus in the women's doubles - in which they came from a set down to beat Anna Kournikova and Barbara Schett 3-6, 6-1, 6-1 to reach the semi-finals where they will play Hingis and Monica Seles - Serena said: "I had food poisoning and I wasn't at my best.

"I did well considering I haven't eaten anything apart from some toast in two days."

The sound of Hingis's cries of anguish and the sight of her burying her head in a towel during a changeover showed her how close the younger Williams was to breaking her, as she did when they met in the 1999 US Open Final.

The level of tennis in the Coetzer match never reached the same heights after the start had been delayed for the roof to be closed to keep off the rain.

The victorious Williams said: "I was having a rough day and in the first set I felt very flat.

"But when she served for the match at 5-3 I figured I had to move forward and I think that's what won it for me.

"When I am on my game it does not matter who I play but when I'm off Amanda's tough to come up against. I don't think she did anything wrong, except in the last game when, maybe, she was thinking too much."

Lack of belief was probably the biggest handicap for the 10th seeded South African. Coetzer's only victory over Williams in seven previous meetings was in Hamburg last May and that was Williams's first tournament back after six months out of tennis due to tendinitis in her wrists.

"I had a couple of passing opportunities I didn't make because up at the net she's intimidating," Coetzer said. "Not winning from the position I was in hurts."

Williams looked fast asleep as she conceded the first 10 points of the match and took only two points against serve as her 29-year-old opponent, twice a semi-finalist in this event, wrapped up the opening set in an astonishing 21 minutes.

At one point there was a loud cry from a fan of "come on Venus, wake up" and the 20-year-old responded in emphatic fashion in the second set, only to lose her way again.

But in the nick of time Williams moved her game up a notch and Coetzer wilted.

In tomorrow's other semi-final, defending champion Lindsay Davenport plays fellow-American Jennifer Capriati in a repeat of last year's last-four clash, which Davenport won 6-2, 7-6.

British junior Jane O'Donoghue won through to the third round of the girls' singles today. O'Donoghue, seeded 15th, easily accounted for Petra Dizdar of Croatia 6-2, 6-0.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in