The two surprises in the draw feature in the top of the bottom half of the draw. 10th seed Anke Huber, who advanced due to 4th seed Mary Pierce’s withdrawal from injury, and Elena Dementieva, who upset 7th seed Conchita Martinez, will play each other for a berth in the semi finals. What an opportunity for either player to advance to the last four of a major! From the outset, that section of the draw was fairly weak with Martinez and van Roost as the other seeds in that section. Mary Pierce looked to be a shoe-in for the last four, but with her injury was always a questionable prospect at these championships. Dementieva attempts to seek her first grand slam semi final whereas Huber attempts to seek her fourth. It promises to be a hard-hitting match and a nervous encounter with both players knowing that they have an opportunity too good to pass up.
Who will win the championships? On form throughout these championships, Hingis has actually looked the most impressive. With the attention on the Williamses, she has been quietly sneaking through but she has played very cleanly and dropped a total of 10 games in four matches. However, she has not faced a big name yet and will face a formidable power hitter in Seles. With all the other power hitters remaining in the draw, it is hard to see Hingis beating them in three consecutive matches to win this title, but she certainly has enough savvy to outsmart them.
The Williamses still remain the favourites to reach the final against each other but have not looked all that solid in their matches. Venus has been rather shaky off her serve whereas Serena has looked rather lackadaisical off the ground. Even if they aren’t playing well, they still have so many other weapons to back them up. Plus, they are fantastic competitors which makes them the players to beat in these championships. Can anyone break Venus’s winning streak?!?!?
