Serena Williams to face Hingis in semifinals

Serena Williams beat fellow power hitter Lindsay Davenport 6-3 6-7 7-5 on Tuesday night to earn a spot in the U.S. Open semifinals against former champion, top seed and world number one Martina Hingis.

On the men's side, their world number one and top seed, Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, also advanced, reaching the quarter-finals with a 6-4 6-4 7-6 victory over Spaniard Albert Costa.

Williams, the 10th seed, failed to convert two match points in a second-set tiebreaker but broke third-seeded Davenport in the final game of the match.

Williams won on a crosscourt forehand winner after earning the match point with a backhand return of serve.

She clenched her fists and screamed "Yeah" after taking the victory.

"I really, really wanted to win this match. So I was a bit elated," she said in a giddy news conference.

Williams, 19, led 3-0 and 4-2 in the final set but 25-year-old Davenport clawed her way back.

"I had a chance to be up four-love," Williams said. "I just blew it. I told myself no matter what I do, no matter how hard I wish, I couldn't even pay a person to rewind time, so I may as well get over it.

"That's what I was able to do. I was able to move on after that."

She said big sister Venus, the defending champion, had given her advice recently: "Champions in tight situations are able to pull through, they don't get nervous."

The younger Williams said: "That really helped me a lot. I don't have time to be nervous anymore, if I'm going to go ahead and do something. I was thinking about what she said."

Down 4-2 in the third set, Davenport climbed out of a 40-0 hole to break Williams, and the games went on serve until the 12th game of the set.

"She just kept coming back," Williams said.

Trading Wins
The U.S. Open is becoming a particular bone of contention between the two hard-hitting Americans, each having had her U.S. Open reign ended by the other.

Davenport, the 1998 champion, was dethroned by Williams in the semifinals the following year. Williams, the 1999 champion, fell to Davenport in the quarter-finals in 2000.

Davenport, who also won Wimbledon in 1999 and the Australian Open last year, reached the semifinals of the other two Grand Slam tournaments she played this year, falling to eventual winners Jennifer Capriati in the Australian and Venus Williams at Wimbledon.

Serena Williams lost in the Australian quarter-finals to Hingis and the quarters of the French and Wimbledon to Capriati.

Now the possibility is still alive that Serena and Venus Williams could meet in the final.

"That would be great," Serena Williams said. "I'm sure TV would love it."

Hingis, who will turn 21 later this month, reached the U.S. Open semis for the sixth year in a row by defeating Czech teen-ager Daja Bedanova, a former childhood playmate three years younger, 6-2 6-0 in 42 minutes.

Bedanova, the only unseeded player to reach the quarter-finals, had eliminated twice former champion Monica Seles in the fourth round.

But against the world number one whose home she used to visit in Switzerland, Bedanova ended her first Grand Slam quarter-final with two double faults.

"I didn't feel so comfortable as I did the past few matches," Bedanova admitted.

Kuerten, a three-times French Open winner, said he now was feeling good on hard courts as well as clay. "I could say I'm maybe playing the same level as the other guys," he said.

"From now on, I think it's maybe a little bit new for me. I never passed to the semifinals, so it can be a different challenge.

"But I'm sure I'm prepared for this."

Against the 40th-ranked Costa, Kuerten produced 18 aces without a double fault, hit 61 winners, and won 82 percent of the points when he got his first serve in.

He next will meet Russian seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, a former French and Australian Open winner.

Kafelnikov Advances

Kafelnikov reached his third Grand Slam quarter-final this year by defeating 12th-seeded Frenchman Arnaud Clement 6-3 6-4 6-3.

The unpredictable Russian had lost to Clement in their three previous meetings.

Last year's junior world champion, 19-year-old American Andy Roddick, made it to the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 6-4 victory over Spaniard Tommy Robredo.

He will face Wednesday morning's winner of the suspended match between fourth-seeded Australian Lleyton Hewitt and 16th seed Tommy Haas of Germany. Haas was leading 6-3 2-2 when play was halted due to rain.

"I've lost to both of them." Roddick said. "Take your pick."