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 Warming up for Wimbledon Kournikova headlines semifinalists at Eastbourne
Posted: Thursday June 17, 1999 01:26 PM
EASTBOURNE, England (AP) -- Anna Kournikova stayed on course for her return next week to Wimbledon, winning 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) over France's Nathalie Dechy in the quarterfinals Thursday of the grass-court quarterfinals at Eastbourne. In other Thursday quarterfinals, sixth-seeded Natasha Zvereva of Belarus defeated Anne Kremer of Luxembourg 6-0, 6-1, and No. 4 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa won over fellow South African Mariaan De Swardt 7-6 (7-3), 6-3. No. 3 Nathalie Tauziat -- runner-up a year ago at Wimbledon -- lost the first seven games and then came back to defeated Russia's Elena Likhovtseva 0-6, 6-2, 6-1. Kournikova faces Tauziat with Coetzer playing Zvereva in the semifinals. A year ago in the quarterfinals here, Kournikova beat Steffi Graf, but she also strained her right thumb in a fall in the match, which kept her from playing at Wimbledon. There we no problems Thursday as the 18-year-old Russian chases her first WTA Tour title. "Right now I'm happy I didn't injure myself and I'm looking forward to the semifinals," said Kournikova, a semifinalist at Wimbledon two years ago and one of the tournament's most popular players. In the match between South Africans, Coetzer fought her way into the match after De Swardt's won 14 consecutive points from 1-1, 0-30 to gain a 3-1 lead in the first set. But Coetzer recovered to level at 3-3, take the tiebreaker and also claim the second set. "She's a very dangerous player on grass," Coetzer said of De Swardt. "Her serve is big and when she comes in she's going to hit good volleys." Zvereva, a semifinalist last year at Wimbledon, allowed Kremer to win only six points on her own serve.
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