Venus books date with Sharapova

LONDON – Venus Williams looked as though she was hurtling towards defeat against a Japanese skiing fan yesterday before fighting back to set up a fourth-round Wimbledon tie against another former champion Maria Sharapova.

Williams was one game away from tumbling out but, as rain began to fall again on the grasscourt tournament, she outsmarted Akiko Morigami 6-2 3-6 7-5. While Williams’s two-hour five-minute tussle with Morigami justified Wimbledon’s decision to award women equal prize money for the first time this year, Justine Henin has done little to silence the critics.The world number one made the most of a short dry spell yesterday to reach the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 destruction of Patty Schnyder.The Belgian, who completed a hat-trick of French Open titles last month, has dropped only 15 games during her stroll into the last eight.”I was a bit surprised the match was so quick,” Henin told reporters.”I’ve done my job perfectly so far.”Things could get significantly trickier in the next round if she runs into Serena Williams, provided the seventh seed manages to dispatch Daniela Hantuchova.Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, number six Ana Ivanovic, Nicole Vaidisova and Nadia Petrova needed to win only a handful of games yesterday to complete their progress into the fourth round.Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva, however, was upstaged by a 16-year-old Austri an.Tamira Pasz player left in the draw, underlined her growing reputation on the circuit to thwart 25-year-old Dementieva 3-6 6-2 6-3.Venus Williams was two breaks down in the second set when torrential downpours over southwest London halted play on Saturday.On resumption her fortunes dipped further when she lost the set after being broken again.Morigami, the last Asian left in the field, seemed to have won the psychological battle when she came from 0-40 down to hold her serve for 3-2 and was gifted a break three games later thanks to a Williams double fault.But the three-times former champion clung on to deny Morigami a famous victory and made no secret of what the win meant to her, jumping up and down to celebrate her great escape.Seventh seed Tomas Berdych ended Asian interest in the men’s competition when he squeezed past South Korea’s Lee Hyung-taik 6-4 7-6 7-6 to reach the last 16.It was the only men’s match to be completed so far on day seven of the grasscourt grand slam before rain once again interrupted play.* Meanwhile, at least one happy family was singing in the rain at Wimbledon yesterday.A mother duck and her four fluffy ducklings have been reunited during a dramatic tournament.The family were first spotted last week waddling on to one of the outside courts when play was, yet again, interrupted by rain.The mother flew off in alarm when officials approached the ducks to shoo them off court.So animal protection officers stepped in and took the ducklings to a local sanctuary.The ducklings were then brought back to Wimbledon and released on the golf course opposite the All England Club.There was a heart-warming reunion when the mother flew back and the family have now settled in well on the golf course,” a Wimbledon spokesman said yesterday.The spokesman was quick to insist that the appearance of duck on the menu at one of the tournament’s restaurants was “entirely coincidental.”British newspapers had a field day with the story when the ducklings were first collected.The tabloid Sun newspaper named them Boris Beaker, Roger Featherer, John Quackenroe and Andy Rodduck.The mother was inevitably named Virgina Wade.Nampa-ReutersWhile Williams’s two-hour five-minute tussle with Morigami justified Wimbledon’s decision to award women equal prize money for the first time this year, Justine Henin has done little to silence the critics.The world number one made the most of a short dry spell yesterday to reach the quarter-finals with a 6-2 6-2 destruction of Patty Schnyder.The Belgian, who completed a hat-trick of French Open titles last month, has dropped only 15 games during her stroll into the last eight.”I was a bit surprised the match was so quick,” Henin told reporters.”I’ve done my job perfectly so far.”Things could get significantly trickier in the next round if she runs into Serena Williams, provided the seventh seed manages to dispatch Daniela Hantuchova.Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, number six Ana Ivanovic, Nicole Vaidisova and Nadia Petrova needed to win only a handful of games yesterday to complete their progress into the fourth round.Russian 12th seed Elena Dementieva, however, was upstaged by a 16-year-old Austri an.Tamira Pasz player left in the draw, underlined her growing reputation on the circuit to thwart 25-year-old Dementieva 3-6 6-2 6-3.Venus Williams was two breaks down in the second set when torrential downpours over southwest London halted play on Saturday.On resumption her fortunes dipped further when she lost the set after being broken again.Morigami, the last Asian left in the field, seemed to have won the psychological battle when she came from 0-40 down to hold her serve for 3-2 and was gifted a break three games later thanks to a Williams double fault.But the three-times former champion clung on to deny Morigami a famous victory and made no secret of what the win meant to her, jumping up and down to celebrate her great escape.Seventh seed Tomas Berdych ended Asian interest in the men’s competition when he squeezed past South Korea’s Lee Hyung-taik 6-4 7-6 7-6 to reach the last 16.It was the only men’s match to be completed so far on day seven of the grasscourt grand slam before rain once again interrupted play.* Meanwhile, at least one happy family was singing in the rain at Wimbledon yesterday.A mother duck and her four fluffy ducklings have been reunited during a dramatic tournament.The family were first spotted last week waddling on to one of the outside courts when play was, yet again, interrupted by rain.The mother flew off in alarm when officials approached the ducks to shoo them off court.So animal protection officers stepped in and took the ducklings to a local sanctuary.The ducklings were then brought back to Wimbledon and released on the golf course opposite the All England Club.There was a heart-warming reunion when the mother flew back and the family have now settled in well on the golf course,” a Wimbledon spokesman said yesterday.The spokesman was quick to insist that the appearance of duck on the menu at one of the tournament’s restaurants was “entirely coincidental.”British newspapers had a field day with the story when the ducklings were first collected.The tabloid Sun newspaper named them Boris Beaker, Roger Featherer, John Quackenroe and Andy Rodduck.The mother was inevitably named Virgina Wade.Nampa-Reuters