WIMBLEDON 2000

REVIEWS BY MARK NEWMAN

IT’S A WILLIAMS SISTERS SHOWDOWN IN THE SEMIS!

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(5) Venus Williams def. (1) Martina Hingis 6-3 4-6 6-4

(8) Serena Williams def. Lisa Raymond 6-2 6-0

What a thrill! Venus and Serena Williams will meet in the Wimbledon semi-finals, ensuring a Williams sister in the final. Serena Williams dropped just two games in another ruthless display, this time against Lisa Raymond. But then Venus was always going to have the tougher match. She faced World #1 Martina Hingis. Normally I would have favoured Williams, but given the fact that Wimbledon is only her fourth tournament of the year after injury, and that Hingis had destroyed Huber in the previous round, I had thought Hingis could win it. But it was not to be. In a fiercely contested match (at one point thirteen consecutive games featured break points) Venus Williams dominated with her powerplay, leaving Hingis fighting to play her usual game. She struggled gamely on, and in the third set there were multiple breaks before Venus ran away with it. The semi will be intriguing, but I would say Serena Williams is rapidly becoming an ever better player than her big sister, and should walk away with it in two sets.

(2) Lindsay Davenport def. (6) Monica Seles 6-7 (4-7) 6-4 6-0

Lindsay Davenport had faced a big baseline hitter in Jennifer Capriati the previous round and was ready for Seles. Seles started fantastically and there were no breaks of serve in the first set. The second set was fiercely contested and Davenport got the deciding break to go up. Seles broke immediately back to keep in contention for a straight sets win, but then dropped her own serve at the crucial time, serving at 4-5 down. After that Davenport took over, as if she had been feeling her way into the match, waiting to pounce. Seles faltered and Davenport won the final set to love.

Other News

Jelena Dokic went one better than last year with a surprise win over Magui Serna. Expect her to fall quite tamely to Davenport in their semi-final… Martina Navratilova may not get a chance to play on Centre Court, which will not please her. She and Mariaan De Swardt crushed Amelie Mauresmo and Arantxa Sanchez Vicario 6-1 6-1 to reach the quarterfinals. There they face Venus and Serena Williams on an outside court, and will have to be pretty magnificent to beat the two semi-final sisters.