Mauresmo tested by Williams - 阿梅莉·莫瑞絲摩 Mauresmo

Eurosport - Pippa Davis - 05/09/2006 09:21

World number one Amelie Mauresmo scrapped her way to a 6-4 0-6 6-2 victory
over wildcard Serena Williams in a topsy-turvy match to reach the
quarter-finals of the US Open on Monday.

Twice former champion Williams looked on course for victory when she roared
back from the narrow loss of the first set to take the second without the
loss of a game.

But - as she did in her third round match against Italian Mara Santangelo -
Mauresmo forced her way back into the match in the decider.

"I'm very excited," Mauresmo said.

"I'm pretty happy with the third set but let's forget (about the second). I'm
glad I was able to really focus back into the match from the beginning of the
third set."

The Frenchwoman dominated the early stages and took the first set but
Williams ripped through the second set to level the match.

But after a cagey opening to the decider, Mauresmo broke in the sixth and
eighth games, clinching victory with an angled backhand drop volley.

Having lost nine of her ten career meetings with Williams, Mauresmo was very
pleased to get a win.

She said: "It feels pretty good. Obviously when you don't have such a good
record against an opponent you want to try to get a little bit better on the
stats.

"But I knew it was going to be a very different match in terms of who's in
confidence and who's in control right now, even though I hadn't played a lot
coming in."

The world number one will play Russian Dinara Safina in the quarter-finals,
after she defeated Anna Chakvetadze 6-3 6-4.

SLOW START

Third seed Maria Sharapova also progressed to the quarter-finals, overcoming
a slow start to beat China's Li Na 6-4 6-2.

Li - the first Chinese woman ever to make the last 16 at Flushing Meadows -
raced to a 4-1 lead but Sharapova hit back strongly to wrap up victory in 78
minutes.

"I started the match a little bit slow," Sharapova admitted.

"I rushed into things. I rushed into my serve and my return. After 4-1, I
thought I kind of relaxed and just made her hit an extra ball.

"She was hitting some good balls. I mean, once she gets a good hit on it, she
can rip the ball really hard.

World number 22 Li forced Sharapova into several uncharacteristic errors
early on but once the Russian found her range, the result was never in doubt.
The Russian added: "But I got a few unforced errors from her, when I got to
break her, and then from then on I gained a bit more confidence, started
serving better and took more time."

Sharapova won five games in a row in the second set to seal victory and set
up a match against Frenchwoman Tatiana Golovin, the 27th seed.

Despite the relative ease of her win, Sharapova said she had been impressed
by Li.

"She's doing better and better with every year," she said.

"I mean, every time I've played against her, we've had really tough matches.
I always seem to be down a break once in a while in the first or second set.
So I know that it's always going to be a tough match-up."

The Russian said she will need to improve against Golovin.

"I don't feel like I can go into every single match and play great," she said.
"But the good thing about (it), was that I won the match and I knew that I
figured out a way to beat her, playing not great.

"I know it's only going to be tougher. Mentally, I know that I need to step
it up."

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