Top-ranked Serena Williams advanced to the semifinals at the Sydney
International with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Vera Dushevina in windy
conditions Wednesday.
Elena Dementieva had to wait out a two-hour delay for rain at
the start of the night session before ousting second-ranked Dinara
Safina 6-2, 6-3 in a repeat of the outcome of last year's Sydney
final.
Dushevina sprayed a forehand wide to give Williams two match
points and then double-faulted to finish the main day match in an
hour in a swirling breeze at the Sydney 2000 Olympics venue.
Williams, playing her only warmup tournament ahead of her
title defense at the Australian Open, next plays France's Aravane
Rezai, who had a 6-3, 6-0 win over Italian Flavia Pennetta.
She said the strong breeze was a relief after a hot opening
win here, although experiencing both conditions was a good test
before the season's first major starts Monday at Melbourne Park.
"It was really windy out there, but it's good to have a good
result in the wind," she said. "I definitely don't think I played
my best, but that's comforting to know that today wasn't my best."
Until this week, Williams hadn't played a tournament since
she beat her older sister Venus in the final of the season-ending
championship at Doha on Nov. 1. She said she had a lot of improving
to do, and was aiming to be peaking at the end of the month.
"I always try to get there usually around the semifinals and
finals of the Grand Slams," the 11-time major winner said. "I'm
just doing the best that I can now to get there. Hopefully I have
long way to go, which I think is always good."
Defending champion Dementieva wants as much practice as
possible ahead of the Australian Open. She'll be back on court
Thursday in a semifinal against sixth-seeded Victoria Azarenka, who
advanced 2-6, 6-2, 7-5 over Slovakia's Dominika Cibulkova.
Dementieva raced to a 5-0 lead and held off Safina in a
tougher second set.
"It was a great experience to play against No. 2 in the world
and just give me another match to play tomorrow," she said.
Safina, who lost the Australian Open final to Serena Williams
last year two weeks after losing to Dementieva in Sydney, was two
matches into a comeback from a back injury that forced her out of
the season-ending champion in October and interrupted her practice.
On the men's side, Lleyton Hewitt started his bid for a fifth
Sydney title with a 6-0, 6-2 win over Italian Andreas Seppi,
reaching the quarterfinals with one 55-minute victory.
Former top-ranked Hewitt won six straight games, then
overcame an early service break in the second set and won six
straight games to finish when Seppi double-faulted at match point.
Fourth-seeded Hewitt, a former U.S. Open and Wimbledon
champion, squared his career head-to-heads at 2-all with Seppi.
"I've had match points against him and ended up losing --
that scoreline today looks a lot better," Hewitt said.
Hewitt next plays 2006 Australian Open finalist Marcos
Baghdatis, who ousted sixth-seeded Viktor Troicki of Serbia 7-5,
6-3.
Another Australian advanced to the quarterfinals when Peter
Luczak had an upset 1-6, 6-4, 6-2 win over second-seeded Tomas
Berdych of the Czech Republic.
Also advancing were Frenchmen Julien Benneteau and Richard
Gasquet - who beat eighth-seeded Benjamin Becker of Germany 6-2,
7-6 (4) - and American Mardy Fish, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Russia's
Evgency Korolev.
