Australian Open
Double blow for Davenport
Nalbandian first into last four
Reuters, Melbourne
Top seed Lindsay Davenport lost her number one ranking after being knocked out of the Australian Open quarterfinals on Tuesday by Justine Henin-Hardenne.Eighth seed Henin-Hardenne won 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 to join Maria Sharapova in the semifinals while ensuring Kim Clijsters, or possibly Amelie Mauresmo, takes over as the new number one when the next rankings are released on Monday. Davenport said she was more disappointed at missing her chance to win the Australian Open than losing the top ranking. "I'm not going to argue that I deserve to be number one," Davenport told a news conference. "I don't want to disrespect it by saying it's low on the priority, but it's not up in my priority list." Second seed Clijsters plays unseeded Swiss Martina Hingis on Wednesday while French third seed Mauresmo faces seventh seed Patty Schnyder, also of Switzerland. Clijsters will be the next number one unless she loses to Hingis and Mauresmo goes on to win the title. Sharapova, seeded fourth, booked her place in the semifinals for the second year in a row at Melbourne Park with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Nadia Petrova in an all-Russian affair. Argentine fourth seed David Nalbandian became the first man through to the semifinals with a clinical 7-5, 6-0, 6-0 victory over unseeded Frenchman Fabrice Santoro. Nalbandian will play either Croatia's Ivan Ljubicic, the seventh seed, or the unpredictable, unseeded Cypriot Marcos Baghdatis who play each other on Tuesday night. Henin-Hardenne, 23, is the bookmaker's favourite to win her second Australian Open title after injury prevented her from defending her title last year. She strolled through her first four matches this year without dropping a set but was in trouble early against Davenport. "I had the chance there after the first set, she wasn't looking so good," Davenport said. "I definitely let her back in early in the second and gave her some confidence and when she has confidence, she plays really well." The dogged Belgian tightened her game in the second set to force the match into a third set then wore down Davenport with her superior court speed. "I'm very happy about this win because I think I came back from a very bad situation," Henin-Hardenne said.
| 
