2005 French Open News
By Eleanor Preston | May 29, 2005

If Lindsay Davenport looked shocked after beating Kim Clijsters 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 you could hardly blame her. It was easy to think of reasons why she should have been packing her bags and heading for the airport check-in desk, yet instead, somehow, she was contemplating a quarter-final at Roland Garros against Mary Pierce.

Not only had she lost her six matches in a row to the Belgian, she had also not been anywhere near this far in Paris for the best part of a decade, but she also won after giving Clijsters a head start of a set and 3-1. Davenport may be World No.1 and therefore currently ranked 16 places above Clijsters, but there are times when numbers mean very little. It was still one of the least predictable wins of Davenport’s twelve-year career.

"I was probably as surprised as anybody when it was all said and done," said Davenport, who has been pushed to three sets in all four of her matches so far. "I'm just really a little bit amazed I was able to pull that match out today, considering how bad I was losing, the previous record against her and it being on clay. There were obviously a lot of things stacked against me going into this match. All of those things are not easy obstacles to overcome and despite all of it I was able to push through and still come out on top. I have just tried in every single match to stay in there, regardless of the circumstances and regardless of it being my least favourite surface. I feel really proud of myself, I have to say that."

The last time Davenport made it to the last eight in Paris was in 1999. In ten previous visits she managed just a single semi-final and that was in 1998 and she admits that clay does everything to accentuate her weaknesses and nullify her strengths. Little wonder she was considering skipping Roland Garros altogether this year and only decided to come three weeks before it began.

Now, remarkably, she is a genuine contender for the title.

"You're way too far ahead," she said, laughing, when asked what it would mean to win the title and complete her set of grand slam titles. "I'm so excited to be in the quarters right now. I'm going to leave it at that. I would love to answer that question in a few more days but right now I'm just ecstatic to be where I am."

Davenport is exceptionally good at playing down her chances in big events and thus transferring the pressure onto her opponent. She did played a canny pre-match game ahead of the Clijsters match by emphasizing the Belgian's supremacy in their head-to-head record. It's difficult to say how much it affected Clijsters mentally or to blame it for the way her game deteriorated as her lead ebbed away but the knowledge that she was expected to beat Davenport didn't help her.

Clijsters was also hampered by her heavily strapped knee, which restricted her movement. She wouldn't be drawn on whether it hurt during the match she was reluctant to make excuses but the injury, combined with the fact that, even with her title wins in Indian Wells and Miami, Clijsters has had relatively few matches since returning to the tour in March, all aided Davenport's cause.

30-year-old Pierce is clearly relishing playing in front of her home crowd, though she needed 11 match points and a few deep breaths to beat Patty Schnyder 6-1, 1-6, 6-4. Pierce was nearly hysterical afterwards, giggling like a schoolgirl at how nervous she had been and how much she had put her fans on Court Phillippe Chatrier through before beating the Swiss baseliner.

Pierce is an engaging personality, charmingly eccentric and yet sensible enough to know that she has very little pressure on her and has earned the chance of winning a second French Open trophy to add to add to her memorable 2000 victory. Davenport's record against Pierce is good, she has won eight of their ten matches but they haven't played since 1999, another reminder that these are two of the veterans of the tour.

15-year-old Sesil Karatancheva, who trains at Nick Bollettieri's Academy in Florida, must feel young in their company yet she showed an unusual maturity in backing up Friday's memorable win over Venus Williams by beating the lesser-known Emmanuelle Gagliardi 7-5, 6-3.

Karatancheva now plays another elder stateswoman of the tour in Elena Likhovtseva, who upset last year's finalist Elena Dementieva 7-6, 5-7, 7-5. Yet another Russian, Nadia Petrova, earned her place in the last eight with a three set win over Elena Bovina.

Maria Sharapova, who, as things stand, needs to make the final to overhaul Davenport as World No.1, was 6-2, 3-3 up and well on the way to beating Nuria Llagostera Vives when the forecast rain hit Roland Garros and delayed her match overnight.

The same rain forced Rafael Nadal and Sebastien Grosjean off court at one set all, though not before a controversial moment mid-way through the second set when Grosjean lost his temper over a line-call on break-point down in the opening game and caused a huge furore. Grosjean wanted Argentine umpire Damian Steiner to check the mark and when his request was turned down the Frenchman refused to play on and instead began an argument which, in turn, ignited the always voluble French Open crowd.

The blameless Nadal was made to wait for more than five minutes while the crowd noisily jeered and booed their disapproval and, unsurprisingly, lost his serve. Justice seemed to be served when Nadal broke the Grosjean serve at the start of the third set, at which point the heavens opened.

All suspended matches will resume on Tuesday, while postponed matches between Ana Ivanovic and Francesca Schiavone; Justine Henin-Hardenne and Svetlana Kuznetsova; as well as Gaston Gaudio and David Ferrer will all be added to Monday's schedule.

Roger Federer managed to beat Carlos Moya quickly enough to ensure he gets a day off before taking on Victor Hanescu, who beat tenth seed David Nalbandian in five sets.

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