Defending champion Venus Williams took three sets to overcome last year's runner-up Lindsay Davenport and reach Saturday's Wimbledon ladies final. Williams was poised for victory when she had match point at 5-4 in the second set, having won the first set 6-2, but wasted the opportunity and gave Davenport a lifeline back into this tie which she grabbed with much gusto. However, Williams produced her some of her best tennis to devastating effect in the third set, destroying the American 6-1.
Williams took complete control of the first set from the start and Davenport, who looked so dangerous in previous rounds, seemed to be below-par as her opponent powered her way to breaking Davenport's serve in the fourth game and again in the eighth game to clinch the set.
The second set seemed to be going the same way as the 2000 champion took a 3-1 lead but Davenport seized the first opportunity that came her way and broke the champion's serve to level matters at 4-4. Suddenly, Williams looked shaky and very different from the player who breezed her way through the opening set, and she made costly errors on her serve and forehand. Davenport had the chance to break her opponent once more on her next service game but Williams saved that point. However, the set went to a tie-break and here Davenport showed her true class, winning it 7-1.
Now, the Centre Court crowds had a match on their hands, or so they thought. But as it turned out, her sudden slump in the middle of the second set seemed to inspire Williams to lift her game to even greater heights than that she displayed in the opening set and she broke Davenport's next two service games to take a 3-0 lead. Despite losing on her own serve in the fourth game, she bounced back to take the next three games easily and set up a final with the French Open semi-finalist, teenager Justine Heni.
"I played satisfactorily, she started playing very well in the second set and my feet stopped moving," explained the number two seed afterwards. "But the whole time I was pretty confident about my game. When you are 2-6 and 1-4 down there is something you have to do and she just started going for it, because that's what she had to do to stay in the match."
"She raised the level of her game and I was making some errors so I figured that if I just cut the errors down I would be okay. I definitely want to win this year more than the first one, one is not enough, I have a little trophy case at home I have to fill up," added Williams.
Filed by Amanda Fennelly
