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Page 4
The real excitement of the tournament began in the middle of the second week, beginning with the ladies quarter finals. Our protagonists for the last eight included each of the top 6 players, plus a former top 5 player and Grand Slam finalist and another player who has improved dramatically this past season to enter the top 10 for the first time this week. The match-ups promised to be intriguing from the beginning, and lived up to their billing by providing much excitement and drama as the encounters wore on. Hingis versus Huber, V. Williams versus Schett, Seles versus S. Williams, Davenport versus Pierce - you could not ask for a higher quality of players in the last eight of a major.
The best match of the tournament featured 5th seed Mary Pierce and defending champion Lindsay Davenport. The match opened in dominating form by Davenport and it looked as though she was headed for yet another rout. Unfortunately for her, things did not go according to plan as many more errors crept into her game, and Mary took full advantage of the situation by being the aggressor, taking the second set 6-3. The third set proved to be an epic battle as each player served big to hold serve for the first six games of the deciding bracket. By this stage, it seemed as though Mary was playing with a lot more aggression and conviction than Lindsay, who appeared listless and uncertain on the court. An upset looked to be in the making. Mary got the vital break and served for the match at 5-4. In fact, she got two match points on her serve. A courageous angled backhand winner from Davenport saved her the first match point. The second was saved by a rushed crosscourt backhand error from Pierce which missed the line by two inches. It just goes to show how cruel the game of tennis can be, as Pierce was just inches away from reaching her first Grand Slam semi final since the 1997 Australian Open. Davenport got the vital break back for 5-5.....and then the rains came. It came at questionable timing, although it did have its benefits. Davenport clearly looked confused up to this point and needed that hour to regroup. Likewise, Pierce needed to regroup after the anger and frustration which she displayed after losing her serve where she had match points already. An hour later, Davenport came out swinging away, holding serve easily and breaking Pierce in a dramatic final game which featured a number of game points, break points and a hell of a lot of deuces. Davenport took the match with a double fault from Pierce's racquet.
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