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Major title threats stay on course

Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Andre Agassi advance in straight sets.

[AP photo] Defending champ Venus Williams beat Elena Likhovtseva in straight sets and has only dropped 14 games in her first three matches.

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times,
published July 1, 2001

WIMBLEDON, England -- Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport have won the past two Wimbledon championships and are heading toward a semifinal showdown this year.

Williams, the defending champ, beat Elena Likhovtseva 6-2, 6-2 in Saturday's third round, and 1999 winner Davenport eliminated Patty Schnyder 6-2, 6-3.

Both Americans have been dominant in three straight-set victories, Williams losing just 14 games and Davenport 17.

Andre Agassi, seeded second behind seven-time champion Pete Sampras, hasn't lost a set either and advanced to the fourth round with a swift 6-3, 6-1, 6-1 win over Nicholas Massu.

The players are off today, the only day in the tournament with no action. All 16 men and 16 women left in the singles draw play Monday.

"With the level of players that are still left in the event, I think it's safe to say that a number of guys can win it," Agassi said.

As can a number of women.

Still around are Williams (seeded second), Davenport (third), Jennifer Capriati (fourth) and Serena Williams (fifth). Top seed Martina Hingis lost in the first round.

Venus Williams, who beat Davenport in last year's final, served five double faults and was not at her peak but easily defeated her 29th-seeded opponent.

"I feel I can get the job done even though I'm not playing my best," Williams said. "I don't feel any pressure (to repeat). I'm happy that I don't. I know a lot of players do."

Among the women, Kim Clijsters (7), Nathalie Tauziat (9), and Jelena Dokic (14) won, while Silvia Farina Elia (16) lost. In two minor surprises, 17th-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy beat No. 11 Amanda Coetzer and No. 31 Tamarine Tanasugarn ousted No. 6 Amelie Mauresmo.

Among the men advancing were No. 3 Patrick Rafter, who beat No. 27 Hicham Arazi in straight sets, and No. 5 Lleyton Hewitt, who won his second consecutive tough outing for his 13th straight match victory.

Tenth-seeded Thomas Enqvist and No. 19 Nicholas Kiefer won, but No. 7 Yevgeny Kafelnikov lost 3-6, 6-1, 6-3, 7-6 (7-2) to Guillermo Canas.

No. 24 Nicolas Escude beat fellow Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, seeded ninth.

Davenport, who at 6 feet 2 1/2 is about 8 inches taller than Schnyder, next meets Dokic in a rematch from last year's Wimbledon semifinals.

"This is the round of 16," Davenport said. "You're going to get a tough match no matter who you play."

Davenport advanced by capitalizing on Schnyder's poor serving. She broke Schnyder in the first game of the second set when Schnyder faulted on seven of her 10 serves.

Schnyder got in only 47 percent of her first serves to 62 percent for Davenport.

Schnyder, in the third round for the first time in her six Wimbledon appearances, improved in the third game of the second set with an ace and a service winner on the last two points to make it 2-1. But Davenport held her serve the entire match.

Davenport, a three-time Grand Slam tournament winner, missed three months this year with a knee injury.

"I'm moving fine," she said. "I don't feel like the months off have hampered me too bad."

After sitting out the French Open, she won at Eastbourne and has rolled here.

But Venus Williams, who won last year's Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles, stands in her way.

"If someone can have a year like Venus did last year, you almost have to just shrug your shoulders and say, 'That's too good,' " Davenport said.

Agassi, who won his only Wimbledon championship in 1992, has been outstanding.

"To go out there and get in control of the match and stay in control of it and not make it any more complicated than it has to be speaks well to how I'm hitting the ball and how I'm playing on the bigger points," Agassi said.

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