March 17, 2005
Davenport vs. Sharapova in Semifinals
INDIAN WELLS, CA - For the eighth time in 12 trips to the Pacific Life Open,
Lindsay Davenport has made her way into the semifinals.
One of the tournament's most sucessful players, the world No.1 picked up her
41st career victory at Indian Wells on Thursday, defeating No.7 seed Nathalie
Dechy, 76(2) 60 to earn a spot in the final four.
Davenport will face No.3 seed Maria Sharapova in the semifinals after the
Russian player defeated No.20 seed Mary Pierce, 64 63.
After needing the help of a tie-break to take the first set, Davenport had very
few struggles in the second.
"I let her back in the set so many times," said Davenport of her first set
performance. "Both games up 40-Love, was serving, got broken both of those,
which you can't let someone get back into the first set like that. So I really
felt like once I held to get to 6-All, I never really looked back from that
point."
Davenport, the winner of two titles at Indian Wells and the runner-up on three
other occasions (including the last two events), said she doesn't consider
Indian Wells her home court but the native Californian has always been very
comfortable competing at this venue.
"I've always loved my time out here and won a lot of matches throughout my
career in Indian Wells, and always seem to really get focused and fired up to
play out here," Davenport said.
Though Dechy departs with a loss, the Frenchwoman continues to advance her
game - evident by her second consecutive quarterfinal appearance at Indian
Wells. Dechy reached the semifinals at last year's event - also losing to
Davenport.
Despite holding her ground in the first set, Dechy said she started to feel a
bit fatigued after the tie-break.
"I think it was more physical drop-off," Dechy said. "I started to be much more
late on the ball, didn't run as fast. Against a girl like this, it doesn't help."
Davenport will play face Sharapova, who needed 1 hour, 27 minutes to defeat
the resurgent Pierce.
After needing just one break and 50 minutes to take the first set, Sharapova
darted out to a 4-0 lead in the second. But Pierce finally held serve for 4-1
and grabbed one break back for 4-2.
The two again traded breaks as Sharapova went up 5-2, but Pierce grabbed it
right back for 5-3. Finally, Sharapova got the match decisive break, winning
the affair on her second match point.
Sharapova improved to 17-1 on the season with her only loss coming to Serena
Williams in the semifinals at the Australian Open. Including her title runs at
Tokyo [Pan Pacific] and Doha, Sharapova has now won 12 straight matches.
"The first few games were very tough," said Sharapova. "She came out hitting
some really good shots. I thought I served well.
"I think I took away some of her big serves today. She has a few favorite spots
out there, and I think I picked those up quite well."
Despite the loss, Pierce was pleased with her efforts in Indian Wells, which
included a win over Nadia Petrova and an entertaining battle against the world
No.3, Sharapova.
"I had fun out there," said Pierce of her match with Sharapova. "I was enjoying
the rallies; we had some good rallies. She definitely challenges me, which is
fun; hits a big ball. So I can see why and how she's been doing well lately,
has only lost one match this year."
This is Sharapova's best career performance at Indian Wells after reaching the
second round in her debut back in 2002, falling in the first round in 2003 and
reaching the fourth round at last year's event.
Sharapova will come into the semifinals with a 2-0 career record against
Davenport with both wins coming in three sets. Her first victory against the
current world No.1 came in the semifinals at Wimbledon, en route to the title.
She also won a three-set decision against Davenport in the Tokyo [Pan Pacific]
final last month.
This will be their first meeting on a hard court surface.
"I'm really excited," said Sharapova on playing Davenport. "It's definitely not
going to be an easy match. But, playing her two months ago, I feel that I think
I know what I need to do, and hopefully I'll go out there and play as well as I
did today.
"But she's playing well, too. I'm expecting a really good match."
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