’98 boys finalists meet in men’s quarters

Costa, seeded nine, faces a last-eight showdown with compatriot Tommy Robredo of Spain, who shocked three-times former champion Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil on Monday.

“I feel great now,” Costa said. “Today is the first day that it was three sets but I don’t feel tired. This match gives me confidence because I played much better tennis and also I played less time.

“Today I found my serve. I don’T know why. At the right moments I served pretty good.”

The Spaniard, whose form has been decidedly patchy this year, raced through the first set, battering Clement with a series of bludgeoned winners.

The bearded Frenchman feebly surrendered his serve at 5-5 in the second set to go two down and it was only when trailing 4-2 in the third that he briefly stirred the crowd.

Helped by an over-rule from the chair he broke back for 4-4 but Costa kept his cool and restored order with a savage backhand cross court winner to break for 6-5 before sealing his win on serve.

Clement’s defeat extended his poor record in Grand Slam last-16 matches and he admitted that he had been unable to match the brute force of his Spanish opponent.

“I have made it to the last 16 nine times but I have lost seven times. It’s a ridiculous statistic,” said the 2001 Australian Open finalist.

“I can play better. Apart from the very end of the match when at times I felt more relaxed I was only average when serving and attacking. I wasn’t strong enough. I didn’t play strongly enough with my body.

“I wasn’t very good but his quality of game was excellent.”

In women’s fourth-round play yesterday, Venus Williams was upset by Vera Zvonareva, a poised and precocious 18-year-old Russian, who won 2-6, 6-2, 6-4. “A turning point in tennis history,” said a tournament news release trumpeting the upset. That might be an overstatement, but for the first time in the past five Grand Slam events, Serena Williams will be denied a chance to beat her older sister in the final.

Zvonareva’s persistence had a lot to do with the upset. She skidded into both corners to retrieve shots, extending rallies until Williams made a mistake. And often that’s what happened. Williams committed 75 unforced errors and hit 12 double-faults, accounting for 87 of the 100 points Zvonareva won. (Reuters)