| |
 Hour of power Serena whips Sanchez-Vicario at Grand Slam Cup
Posted: Tuesday September 28, 1999 09:46 PM
MUNICH, Germany (Ticker) -- Picking up where she left off at the U.S. Open, third seed Serena Williams of the United States cruised into the semifinals of the $6.7 million Grand Slam Cup tennis exhibition Tuesday. Making her first appearance in singles since she captured her U.S. Open crown three weeks ago, Williams needed only 53 minutes to post a 6-3, 6-1 victory over Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario. "My life hasn't changed a lot at all. I'm still practicing and working hard," said Williams, who was fined for pulling out of last week's WTA Tour event in Luxembourg. "I was so tired at the Fed Cup, I could barely walk. I even have a cold now. I think the tournament director [in Switzerland] was a little angry." The 17-year-old Williams cruised through the first four games in only 11 minutes and lost only six points -- three of them on double faults. Sanchez-Vicario broke Williams twice to pull within 4-3 but could not hold her own serve. Serving for the first set, Williams fired an ace for two set points. Sanchez-Vicario saved the first with a backhand service return but sent a forehand over the baseline on the second to lose the set in 30 minutes. Williams again jumped out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, losing just three points. After the Spaniard held serve, Williams won the next two games to win her 14th consecutive match. "[Sanchez-Vicario] was making a lot of errors," Williams said. "It's not like I really won those first four games. Then she started playing a little better and I wasn't ready. When I started playing better, I started concentrating more. I totally wasn't focused out there in the first set." This season Williams has emerged from her older sister Venus' shadow to collect four titles, including her first Grand Slam triumph. She will play the winner of Wednesday's match between second seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States and Mary Pierce of France. On the men's side Tuesday, Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands downed American Vincent Spadea, 6-2, 7-5. The two met twice before this season, both times at Grand Slam events. Spadea upset Krajicek at the French Open before the Dutchman gained revenge at the U.S. Open. Krajicek will meet French Open finalist Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine in Thursday's quarterfinals. In other men's action, Greg Rusedski of Britain defeated Brazil's Gustavo Kuerten 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. Rusedski, the hard-serving lefty, still seeks his first tournament victory of the season. However, he has played well at the Grand Slams, advancing to the fourth round at the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. He is coming off a pair of wins in Britain's tie with South Africa in Davis Cup World Group qualifying. Top seed Andre Agassi of the United States returns to action this week for the first time since winning his second U.S. Open title. Agassi, who also won the French Open and reached the final at Wimbledon, lost to Marcelo Rios in last year's final in a five-set marathon. He brings a 12-match winning streak into his quarterfinal match against either Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia and Germany's Tommy Haas, who meet on Tuesday. Agassi has lost just four times in his last 39 matches. One of the two men to beat Agassi during that stretch is second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who endured a miserable weekend as his Russian team was embarrassed by Australia in the Davis Cup semifinals. Kafelnikov, the Australian Open champion and a semifinalist in New York, lost both his singles matches and was forced to eat his words after he said that his team would win easily. A two-time semifinalist here, Kafelnikov will now face Rusedski. Australian Open winner Martina Hingis of Switzerland is the women's top seed. Hingis also was runner-up at the French Open and U.S. Open. Her first-round encounter will be a rematch of the final in Melbourne as she will battle Amelie Mauresmo of France. Hingis posted a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Mauresmo to win her third straight Australian Open title, but Mauresmo gained revenge at the Paris Open in February with a 6-2, 1-6, 3-6 triumph. Defending champion Venus Williams of the United States is the fourth seed. Williams split her two singles matches in the United States victory over Russia in the Fed Cup final two weeks ago. Venus Williams won five titles this season but watched as her younger sister became the first from her family to hoist a Grand Slam trophy. Venus has not reached a Grand Slam final since 1997, when she lost to Hingis at the U.S. Open. The Grand Slam Cup does not carry ranking points on the ATP or
WTA tours but hands out big money prizes. The men's winner
takes home $1.3 million while the women's champion earns
$800,000. In addition, the men's winner of each Grand Slam
receives $125,000 and the women $100,000.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||
