Steffi rallies past Venus into semis

She went through the earlier rounds without dropping a set, but theDavenport was going to be a tough quarter-final match. Sure it did as theUS Open champion earned a 6-3, 6-4 win over the Czech champion to enter thesemifinals for the first time here.

“It’s never easy to beat a grass court player on grass,” Davenport said.“But I knew if I executed the style of play I wanted to play today, I had agood chance. But the rain delay came and for a hour and a half you can donothing but think about the match. I was already a break up and I played thefirst two points after the break really well." They had met five timesbefore but Novotna had always finished second best, the last one being atPhiladelphia two years. In fact, Novotna has won just one set in all thefive meetings. “It was an important match for me.

I haven’t had a win over a top 10 player since the Australian Open and Iwanted to break the quarter-final jinx. Ten days ago, nobody would havegiven me any chance to enter the round of four. For some, it is a hugeupset, but I knew in other ways I could do it going out there,” Davenportsaid.

After her first big win on grass, the American felt it was a little bit morefun playing on grass, rather than on clay. The points are shorter and if youhit a good shot it’s over. “On clay, if you hit a great shot they slide andget it back. So sometimes it is mentally more draining, but on grass where Ihaven’t had good results, getting to the semis is huge feeling."

“When the tournament started, I believed I could win it. If you have a biggame on grass it helps because it’s hard to get those balls back. But thenext two matches are going to be extremely difficult, especially the nextone because these teenagers are obviously fearless and are playing extremelywell."

Paes-Bhupathi trail, play suspended

Top-seeded Indian pair Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupathi lost the first set3-6 to Sebastien Lareau and Alex O’Brien before rain suspended play atWimbledon today. In other matches, Jelena Dokic lost the first set toAlexandra Stevenson 3-6, and was 5-1 up in the second.

Todd Martin and Pat Rafter were locked 3-3 in the first set, while TimHenman was 1-0 up against Cedric Pioline. In a match that was still inprogress, Nathalie Tauziat had taken the first set off Mirjana Lucic 6-4;the two were tied 3-3 in the second.

Wimbledon Results

Women singles (QF): 2-Steffi Graf (Germ) bt 6- Venus Williams (US) 6-2 3-66-4; 3-Lindsay Davenport (US) bt Jana Novotna (Czech) 6-3 6-4.

Mixed doubles (2nd round): 2-Todd Woodbridge (Aus)/ Lindsay Davenport (US)bt David MacPherson (Aus)/ Rachel McQuillan (Aus) 6-1 6-4; 3-Jonas Bjorkman(Swe)/ Anna Kournikova (Rus) bt John De Jager (SA)/ Miriam Oremans (Ned)6-2 6-3; 4-Mark Knowles (Bah)/ Elena Likhovtseva (Rus) w/o Mahesh Bhupathi(Ind)/ Annabel Ellwood (Aus); 6-Rick Leach (US)/ Larisa Neiland (Lat) btMartin Rodriguez (Arg)/ Florencia Labat (Arg) 3-6 6-3 6-2; Mark Merklein(US) / Erika De Lone (US) bt 7-David Adams (SA)/ Mariaan De Swardt (SA) 3-66-3 6-4; 9-John McEnroe (US)/ Steffi Graf (Ger) bt Eyal Ran (Isr)/ VanessaMenga (Bra) 6-3 6-4;

Third Round: Bob Bryan (US)/ Lisa McShea (Aus) bt 10-Wayne Black (Zim)/Cara Black (Zim) 4-6 6-3 6-3

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