Newz Forum: OTHER: Tennis News 01/04/04

Elena Dementieva derailed another potential final meeting between Venus and Serena Williams by upsetting the former in the quarter-finals of the NASDAQ-100 Open on Wednesday.The Williamses were on a collision course for their first head-to-head battle since last year's Wimbledon final before Dementieva outlasted Venus 6-3 5-7 7-6 (7-3).

The sisters appeared to be returning to form after long absences. Venus missed the final five months of 2003 with an abdominal strain.Serena is playing for the first time since her Wimbledon title, thanks to a knee injury.Serena holds a 7-5 lead, winning each of the last six matches, five in Grand Slam finals. But Dementieva had other ideas.



Serena Williams marched into the semi-finals of the NASDAQ-100 Open, but three-time defending champion Andre Agassi crashed out in the fourth round of the tournament in Key Biscayne.Williams, given the top seeding despite an eight month absence, appears to be improving with each performance and against fellow American Jill Craybas she won 6-0 6-1 in just 52 minutes.




Guillermo Coria of Argentina eased past Germany's Nicolas Kiefer in the NASDAQ-100 Open in Miami on Wednesday.In the semi-finals, he will meet No 21 Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, who rallied past Romanian Andrei Pavel, 6-7 (5-7) 6-3 6-4.Gonzalez won the last five games of the second set, then scored a third straight break of Pavel's serve in the first game of the third. Still alive on the opposite side of the bracket are Americans Andy Roddick and Vincent Spadea, Carlos Moya of Spain and Argentinian Agustin Calleri.



Goran Ivanisevic is desperate for Wimbledon's Centre Court to provide a fitting finale to his tennis career.The 32-year-old Croatian continues to battle on in the hope that he will have one more chance to play at the place which provided his crowning moment.Recurrent shoulder problems wiped out Ivanisevic's dream of returning to Wimbledon as defending champion one year after his scarcely-believable final win over Pat Rafter in 2001.And they sidelined him again last year as he was forced to pull out of the Stella Artois Championships just a fortnight before Wimbledon began.Now the Croat's most recent injury woe in the Nasdaq 100 Open in Miami once again threatens his participation in what will surely be his final year on the circuit.