Lindsay Davenport held her nerve for victory as Jelena Jankovic launched an emotion-charged attack on the umpire to crash out 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 at the Bali International on Friday.
Davenport, considering a full-time return to tennis three months after having a baby son, stayed quiet in the seventh game of the final set as world number three Jankovic imploded with anger in their quarterfinal.
The top-seeded Serb’s verbal volley came after a Davenport return called out by the linesman was over-ruled as good by the umpire.
That perceived error sent Jankovic ballistic and paved the way for two consecutive double-faults, a racket crack and the loss of the game to trail 2-5. A game later and on the way out, the seething Jankovic gave Davenport an ace after that shot was apparently called wrong.
The American will play against Italian Sara Errani, who beat Japan’s Aiko Nakamura 6-1, 6-2.
Second seed Daniela Hantuchova taught Japanese teenager Ayui Morita a 6-2, 6-1 lesson to reach a sixth semifinal of the season. Hantuchova left little to chance as she overwhelmed a 17-year-old billed as one of Asia’s up-and-coming players Hantuchova advanced to the final four in 68 minutes, never challenged after she took command with a break for 4-2 in the opening set.
Gonzalez through
World number seven Fernando Gonzalez stayed on course for a first title of the year after a rain-disrupted 7-5, 6-7, 6-4 quarterfinal win over South Korea's Lee Hyung-taik at the China Open, adds Reuters from Beijing. With top seed Nikolay Davydenko bowing out on Thursday, the Chilean will go into the weekend as favourite to win the $500,000 tournament but will have to be much more consistent if he is to get past Ivan Ljubicic or Marcos Baghdatis in the semifinals.
As dark clouds gathered over the Beijing Tennis Centre, the second seed started as he left off in his humbling of compatriot Paul Capdeville on Wednesday and hustled and harried his way to a 5-0 lead after just 19 minutes.
All of a sudden, though, the 27-year-old was on the back foot and rather than raking winners, Gonzalez was ballooning the ball into the leaden skies and flinging his racket around in frustration.
Sixth seed Lee, the Asian number one, took full advantage by winning the next five games and levelling the match before rain caused play to be suspended.
The first rain-break rejuvenated Gonzalez and he again racked up five straight games to win the first set and take a 3-0 lead in the second before the wet weather returned. Gonzalez was without a win since June when he arrived in Beijing and his problems returned after the nearly two-hour rain-break with Lee again levelling the set and forcing a tiebreak, which he won 7-5.
The Chilean took the initiative in the decider by breaking Lee in the first game but again let the cool Korean off the hook when serving to go 5-3 up.
This time Gonzalez would not be denied and he broke back immediately before keeping his own serve and entering the semifinals with a rasping forehand winner nearly five hours after the players arrived on court.