DUBAI, 27 February 2004 — Venus Williams’s disappointing start to the year continued yesterday when she suffered a 6-2, 6-3 defeat by Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova in the quarterfinals of the Dubai Open. World No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne took just 48 minutes to sweep aside an ailing Conchita Martinez 6-1, 6-0. She will play Meghan Shaughnessy in the semifinals after the American beat fourth seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia 7-6, 4-6, 6-3.
Kuznetsova will meet Japan’s Ai Sugiyama, who beat Greece’s Eleni Daniilidou 6-1, 6-3, in the other semifinal. Second seed Williams was absent from the tour after Wimbledon because of injury and has struggled since returning at the Australian Open.
She lost there to compatriot Lisa Raymond in the third round, and then won just one match in Tokyo before defaulting her quarterfinal because of a knee injury. “It’s very difficult to play an event of this caliber against players who have trained and been out there practicing,” said Williams.
“After Tokyo I just hit for a couple of hours in London, and here about an hour each day, and it’s not enough to be ready. But I know that I’ll be okay, I’m really in good spirits.”
Kuznetsova, 18, used a big forehand, solid serve and strong groundstrokes to keep the American under pressure, and after dropping her serve in the opening game looked the more solid player.
Williams showed a few glimpses of her ferocious groundstrokes, notably when she held serve to love after falling behind a set and 3-0.
The American briefly threatened a comeback, pulling back to 2-3, but further breaks of serve left Kuznetsova serving for the biggest victory of her young career.
“I played great today. I was relaxed and tried to play my game,” she said. “She’s not at the top of her level now, but when you play against these top players you still have to play so good to beat them,” said Kuznetsova, who trains at the Emilio Sanchez academy in Spain.
Williams has won just four matches in three tournaments this year. She expects to be back to her peak when she plays in Miami starting on March 22.
Henin-Hardenne found little resistance from Martinez, who was suffering from a neck strain. The eighth-seeded Spaniard looked lethargic and was slow to go for the wide ball, and at the end of the first set received lengthy treatment. It proved to be ineffective and she barely competed in the second set.
Semi-Retired Rosset Beats Coria in Marseille
Veteran Marc Rosset shone once again at one of his favorite tournaments yesterday when he upset second seed Guillermo Coria 7-6, 6-1 in the second round of the Marseille Open.
The 33-year-old Swiss Davis Cup captain, who had to qualify for the $600,000 tournament, celebrated his 25th match victory at an event he won in 1993, 1994 and 2000. The 1992 Olympic champion, now ranked 122nd in the world, took full advantage of the Argentine clay-court specialist’s discomfort on the indoor hardcourt.
“I was really keen to meet him as it was the first time. You don’t meet top 10 guys in Challengers these days,” Rosset said of fourth-ranked Coria, who won his seventh career title in Buenos Aires last weekend.
“The fact that he was returning from playing on clay helped for sure but I took lots of risks on his serve and it paid off. I had been looking for moments like this for some time,” added Rosset, who is now semi-retired. “It’s hard at my age to keep the motivation.”
“But I have great fun in the tournaments I enjoy. That’s the case in France and especially in Marseille, a town in which I haven’t lost many matches. “They should make me an honorary citizen,” he said.
Another clay-court specialist, former French Open champion Albert Costa, also crashed out in the second round. The Spaniard, seeded sixth, went down 7-5, 4-6, 7-6 to Slovak Dominik Hrbaty.
France’s Gregory Carraz, who ousted top seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in the previous round, was brought down to earth with a 6-3, 6-4 defeat at the hands of Swede Robin Soderling.
Tennis Chiefs Hit Back in Drugs Row
Tennis bosses revealed yesterday that Wimbledon champion Roger Federer had undergone 23 drug tests last year, as they launched a public relations offensive designed to prove they were serious about tackling the issue of doping in their sport.
The Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), which governs the men’s game, has come under fire for the way it has handled the issue of drug-testing.
But in publishing the results of their drug test program for 2003 on its website, an ATP spokeswoman said this was proof that the organization had “nothing to hide”.
British No. 2 Greg Rusedski is currently waiting to hear if he will be banned for two years for testing positive for banned substance nandrolone. The Canadian-born Rusedski has alleged he is the victim of a flawed procedure, arguing that while that more than 40 players had traces of nandrolone in their samples last year only seven appeared before a tribunal.
All were ultimately cleared after it emerged that nutritional supplements handed out by ATP trainers could have been the source of the positive tests.
The ATP Tour was forced into a humiliating u-turn last year after Czech Bohdan Ulihrach had a ban for testing positive for nandrolone overturned.
Ulihrach’s suspension was lifted when traces of the drug were discovered in a supplement given to him by one of the ATP Tour’s own trainers.
Meanwhile, athletics chiefs said they were thinking of following the ATP’s example. Nick Davies, a spokesman for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the sport’s world governing body, told yesterday’s edition of the London Evening Standard: “We are studying doing this and it is already being discussed by our medical commission. We already publish all the results of positive tests and this would be the next step.”
