String of Upsets Continues for Baghdatis
By CHRISTOPHER CLAREY
THE NEW YORK TIMES
nytimes.com
MELBOURNE, Australia, Wednesday, Jan. 25 - In the stands at the Australian Open as Tuesday night gave way to Wednesday morning, parents and their children huddled under blankets. In the president's box, the blazers were coming in handy.
Was this really the same place where it was too hot to play outdoors just two days earlier?
Things can change quickly in Melbourne, and the quarterfinals at Rod Laver Arena stayed true to that theme during Tuesday's night session.
Top-seeded Lindsay Davenport could do little wrong in the opening set of her high-velocity baseline duel with eighth-seeded Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium. But in the end, the smaller, quicker and more versatile Henin-Hardenne took control to win, 2-6, 6-2, 6-3. She will meet fourth-seeded Maria Sharapova of Russia in the semifinals.
In the men's match that followed, unseeded Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus could do little wrong in the first two sets before seventh-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia took over in the next two sets.
With both receiving loud and occasionally unsportsmanlike support from the crowd, Baghdatis managed just enough spectacular passing shots and outstretched service returns in the fifth set for a 6-4, 6-2, 4-6, 3-6, 6-3 victory.
"Everybody are in the streets right now, all my family, parents, just everybody they're having fun; everybody today stopped working in Cyprus to watch my match," he said.
Baghdatis, a Greek Cypriot, was born and reared in Limassol, on the southern coast, and until he decided that he wanted to be a tennis star, Cyprus had never had a man or woman good enough to play in a Grand Slam tournament. But Baghdatis was precocious enough to begin playing in the Davis Cup for Cyprus at age 14.
Now, at 20, he has hustled and counterattacked his way into the semifinals, where he will face fourth-seeded David Nalbandian of Argentina. In his quarterfinal, Nalbandian overwhelmed unseeded Fabrice Santoro of France, 7-5, 6-0, 6-0. That match finished more than 10 hours earlier in brilliant sunshine.
Ranked 54th in the world, Baghdatis has not had an easy road to the semifinals. He needed five sets to upset 17th-seeded Radek Stepanek in the second round and four sets to finish off No. 2 Andy Roddick in the fourth round. His marathon against Ljubicic began Tuesday and finished at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.
Ljubicic is a terrific fast-court player who led Croatia to the Davis Cup title last month. But Baghdatis, a former world junior champion, continued to show no signs of stage fright. He held at love when he served for the match against Roddick, a former United States Open champion and No. 1 player, and he held almost as easily when he served for the match against Ljubicic.
"Everybody has pressure, everybody is scared, everybody is human," Baghdatis said. "I think I deal with it well, so I'm very happy. All my career I had pressure. I left home when I was 14, so it helped me take my responsibilities."
Temperatures dropped Tuesday, despite a forecast for more brutally hot weather. Davenport had to resort to wearing a warm-up jacket on changeovers, but nothing she tried could prevent another loss to Henin-Hardenne.
Each has won an Open title: Davenport in 2000 and Henin-Hardenne in 2004. But only Davenport looked like a champion in the first set, shrugging off concerns about her sprained left ankle and hitting her deceptively powerful ground strokes and returns deep.
But in the second set, Henin-Hardenne's greater range of movement and her talent began to show. She was hardly at her most consistent, however; she ended up serving 11 double faults. But she was able to extend the exchanges and stretch the angles enough to make Davenport consistently uncomfortable.
Davenport, a finalist here and at Wimbledon last year, is still trying to end her six-year drought in Grand Slam tournaments. She will lose her No. 1 ranking after this tournament to second-ranked Kim Clijsters of Belgium or third-ranked Amélie Mauresmo of France.
But Davenport, 29, said that she would return to play here next year and that she still had another major title in her.
"Obviously Wimbledon was just six or seven months ago," she said. "I wouldn't stay out here and I wouldn't give it my all if I didn't feel like it was still reachable."
After losing the first five meetings of their rivalry, Henin-Hardenne has beaten Davenport five times in a row. The first of those victories came in the fourth round here in 2003, in a match that helped lay the foundation for Henin-Hardenne's rise to the top of the sport.
That reign was cut short by illness and injuries. But after missing this tournament last year because of a knee injury, she is back in the semifinals.
"I'm very happy about this win, because I think I came back from a very bad situation," said Henin-Hardenne, who had played only one match in four months before starting her season by winning in Sydney.
"I was expecting this a little bit, what happened in the first set, and so was Carlos," she said, referring to her longtime coach Carlos Rodriguez. "It's been a long time since I played a match at this level, so it was normal to be a bit nervous, and Lindsay is a great champion."
Earlier Tuesday, Sharapova advanced with a 7-6 (6), 6-4 victory over sixth-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia. Both players tried and failed to produce a level of tennis worthy of their rankings and reputations. In the opening set, they combined for 54 unforced errors and 15 double faults.
But in typical fashion, Sharapova handled the situation better. Petrova unsuccessfully served for the first set at 5-4 and 6-5, then squandered two set points in the tie breaker.
After she lost the opening game of the second set at love on a double fault, Petrova was soon wiping away tears. Although she managed to pull herself together long enough to rally from a 4-1 deficit, she remained unable to defeat Sharapova in a Grand Slam tournament.
She also lost quarterfinal matches to Sharapova last year at Wimbledon and the United States Open. "I just feel like I simply gave it away," Petrova said.
Baghdatis has been in a much stingier mood here, belying his ranking. But he does not look much like a wide-eyed youngster, with his full beard and solid frame. Nor does he sound like someone who has arrived at an unexpected place.
Asked if it was a dream to reach the Australian Open semifinals, he smiled wearily - it was 2:45 a.m., after all - and answered clearly: "The dream is to win Australia. You should never dream of being fourth in a tournament." |
