Sat, 24 Aug 2002

Myskina stuns Hingis, Venus and Davenport win

Barry Wood, Reuters, New Haven, Connecticut

Unseeded Russian Anastasia Myskina followed up her victory over Justine Henin by reeling off 11 straight games to upset Martina Hingis 6-7 6-4 6-0 in the quarterfinals of the New Haven Open on Thursday.

In other last eight matches, the leading players all advanced with defending champion Venus Williams needing just 53 minutes to dismiss rising American Laura Granville 6-2 6-1 in her match.

Second seed Lindsay Davenport reached her fourth semifinal since returning to the tour after missing the seven months of the season with a knee injury, edging two tough sets to overcome sixth seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France 7-6 6-3.

Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, the seventh seed, also reached the semifinal with a comfortable 6-4 6-3 win over Switzerland's Patty Schnyder.

Myskina now faces Davenport for a place in the final.

Davenport surrendered a bundle of chances before securing the first set from Mauresmo, and took the second on just a single break of serve in a tightly contested battle.

Mauresmo, who won the Canadian Open last week, was playing with both her thighs heavily strapped, and admitted her success and run of matches was taking a toll on her body.

"I am getting a little bit tired, and my legs are getting very tight," Mauresmo said. "The left leg it's the abductor, the other side it's the quad muscle."

The Frenchwoman later withdrew from doubles with a left thigh strain.

In men's tennis, defending champion Tommy Haas overcame a sluggish start to defeat Agustin Calleri 4-6 6-2 6-1 on Thursday to advance to the quarter-finals of the TD Waterhouse Cup in Commack, New York.

The top-seeded German, who is nursing a sore shoulder, had to rally from being a set down for the second consecutive match but he eventually wore down the 16th-seeded Argentinean in the final two sets.

Despite the victory Haas's shoulder was clearly bothering him once again.

"There were moments when my arm [forearm and elbow] would be hurting but then it would go away for a while.

"When I serve sometimes I can really feel it -- it could be just that I make a bad move," he said.

In other third round action, fifth-seeded Alex Corretja of Spain had to battle for nearly three hours before finally getting the better of Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 5-7 6-4 6-3.

Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, the number four seed, easily trounced 14th-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-0 6-2 to also advance to the last eight.

Seventh seed Juan Ignacio Chela of Argentina also advanced with a 7-5 7-6 victory over American Jan-Michael Gambill.

Meanwhile, the match between number 11 Jarkko Nieminen of Finland and Brazil's Flavio Saretta was postponed by rain with Saretta leading 3-1 in the first set. It will be concluded on Friday morning.

American Mardy Fish also moved on with a 6-3 6-4 win over Chilean Nicolas Massu as Paradorn Srichaphan of Thailand won the eighth match of his past nine outings with a 6-4 6-1 triumph over Czech Bohdan Ulihrach.

Paul-Henri Mathieu of France, who knocked Pete Sampras out of the tournament earlier this week, continued his winning streak with a 2-6 6-3 7-6 victory over Spain's Alberto Martin.