Williams Drops Out, and Russians Pick Up

By Lisa Dillman

July 31, 2004 12 AM PT

Times Staff Writer

CARLSBAD — Rematch day at the Acura Classic started with so much promise, so much potential and ended up with disappointment as the overriding emotion here Friday.

Three quarterfinals, two of them blowouts, and another didn’t even make it to the start line when No. 1-seeded Serena Williams withdrew in the morning because of an inflamed left knee, giving No. 12 Vera Zvonareva of Russia a walkover into tonight’s semifinals. There would be no chance of a repeat of their thrilling quarterfinal last week in Carson.

Zvonareva will face No. 3 Anastasia Myskina of Russia, who beat No. 6 Maria Sharapova, 7-5, 6-2. In the other semifinal, No. 4 Lindsay Davenport will put her two-tournament, 12-match winning streak on the line, facing No. 5 Elena Dementieva of Russia. Dementieva defeated Amy Frazier, 6-2, 6-1, and Davenport beat Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 6-1, 6-3.

The Dementieva and Davenport victories were bookends to the Williams announcement before the day session crowd of 6,153. It seems as though spectators at the La Costa Resort and Spa are growing accustomed to these on-court speeches by the Williams sisters.

Another day, another withdrawal.

On Tuesday, Venus Williams took the microphone to announce she would be unable to compete in the tournament because of a sprained right wrist. Her little sister followed in her footsteps.

“I always wanted to be like Venus, maybe too much,” Serena said, joking. “I have to do everything that she does.”

For Serena, it is a potentially serious development considering her history. She suffered the injury chasing down a drop shot against Elena Bovina of Russia in the third round Thursday night, and the latest trouble with the knee comes almost a year after her surgery on the same knee.

Williams said she had therapy on the knee into the early morning hours, getting to bed at about 2 a.m. She has struggled, winning only one tournament title since her return from the knee operation, but is taking a long-range view.

“That’s another reason, I didn’t want it to be in jeopardy, I don’t want to take that chance, and miss out on the Olympics and the U.S. Open,” she said. “I definitely don’t want to do that.”

To that end, she is all but out of next week’s tournament in Montreal and will probably be getting an MRI exam in Los Angeles. But the day of disappointment in Southern California appeared to fill the imminent vacancy in Canada, as Sharapova is taking a wild-card spot there.

The 17-year-old Wimbledon champion suffered her first loss in 15 matches and it appeared to be one of the most devastating of her young career. She led, 5-2, in the first set and collapsed when Myskina applied pressure. Sharapova lost the next nine games.

The French Open champion, Myskina, won in 1 hour 22 minutes, as Sharapova double-faulted six times and had 45 unforced errors before a sellout crowd of 6,500 at night.

Sharapova exited the court quickly and seemed on the verge of tears in the interview room.

“Any loss is not pretty,” Sharapova said. “Her being a few years older than me explains it all. She’s been around. She finds a way to win.”

Sharapova was asked if this was a setback for the U.S. Open.

“Why? I still have the opportunity to get a lot of hard-court matches in,” she said. “I’ve won 14 matches in a row. I’m not perfect. There’s times where you are going to lose a match.”

There’s almost always a back story when it comes to tennis, and the last two Grand Slam champions are no exception. One running theme during the California hard-court circuit has been how some of the Russians don’t consider Sharapova to be “really Russian,” because she has spent most of her life in the United States.

On Thursday, Myskina entered the fray when she said she felt Sharapova had an American mentality and that she didn’t think Sharapova had been back to Russia. By the time the comments hit the Russian newspapers, they took on a tougher meaning. Myskina received a phone call from Russia in the morning and spent the morning in emotional distress.

Myskina opened her news conference by making a statement. “Russian newspaper today said I said some bad things, that Maria’s an American. That I said something else,” Myskina said. “If she’s practicing here, it’s completely her choice, and it’s nothing bad. I really respect her as a player and a person.”

She said she planned to apologize to Sharapova but acknowledged the obvious: “I think Maria’s pretty upset now.”

Times staff writer Lauren Peterson contributed to this report.

Featured Matches

Today’s semifinals at the Acura Classic:

STADIUM COURT, noon

* Lindsay Davenport vs. Elena Dementieva, Russia

STADIUM COURT, 7 p.m.

* Vera Zvonareva, Russia, vs. Anastasia Myskina, Russia