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Crunch time Seeded players in familiar territory
NEW YORK (AP) -- With the women's semifinals at the U.S. Open set for Friday, the invitation list includes the usual contenders. There's top-seeded Martina Hingis, No. 2 Lindsay Davenport and No. 3 Venus Williams -- joined by unseeded teen-ager Elena Dementieva, the first Russian woman to make it this far in the season's final Grand Slam. Hingis, the 1997 Open champion, plays Venus Williams in what is becoming a compelling rivalry while. Davenport, who won this title in 1998, takes on the spunky Dementieva. It was Davenport who upset an anticipated Williams family showdown for the championship when she knocked off Venus' sister, Serena, in the quarterfinals. Before the match, she joked with old pal Hingis that somehow the Williams juggernaut had to be halted, especially after she had lost five straight against Serena. "She was giving me a hard time," Davenport said of Hingis. "We joke around. She said, `OK, come on, you have to do this finally. You never win. Beat her. "It wasn't a serious talk. We always joke about things like that." Serena didn't think it was so funny. "That's the way a lot of people would want it," she said. "I'm sure a lot of people never want to see an all-Williams final, because everyone doesn't really like us. That's just the way it is. Not everyone can like you. It's just part of life." And the all-Williams showdown? "It's going to happen in the future, inevitably," Serena said. "Nobody's going to be able to stop it. I'm going to make sure it happens." Just not here and not now. After the match, Serena pulled out of the doubles competition because of an inflammation of the big toe on her left foot. She and Venus, defending their doubles championship, had reached the semifinals at the Open. The injury is described as chronic, but doctors said Williams remains probable for the Olympics. If Williams' toe took her out of doubles, it was Davenport's power game that finished her in singles. She held serve throughout the match and gradually wore down Serena, who had knocked her out of this tournament when Lindsay was defending champion a year ago. She shrugged off Williams' us-against-them view of the match. "There's no revenge," she said. "I mean I'm going to lose to her again. I'm going to beat her again. That's the way it goes." As for Dementieva, Davenport has never lost a set to the teen-ager in four matches. "Good player," she said. "She must be playing well here. She hits the ball hard. I've had success trying to take advantage of her serve. If you hit the balls hard and deep, she's had a bit of trouble with that. So I'm going to try and do that again." Three of the four women left have played each other frequently. Dementieva is the wild card in the group, a newcomer on the Grand Slam circuit. She is 0-1 against Hingis and 0-4 against Davenport. But she did defeat Venus Williams for Russia's only point against the United States in their Fed Cup match. It was not a tournament like I usually play," she said. "It was for a team. I always play much better when I play the team competitions." Hingis vs. Venus is a rematch of this past year's Open semi, which Hingis won in three sets. In the final, however, she fell to sister Serena. Friday's semifinal will be the 16th meeting between Hingis and Venus Williams. Hingis leads the series 9-6, although Williams has won three of the last four matches including the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, where she went on to take her first Grand Slam. It was at Wimbledon that the Williams sisters played in the semifinals, a match that many thought would be reprised at the Open. Now, they will have to wait for another time and place.
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