From 7/16 to 1/4

When seven Russian women made it to the last sixteen, it seemed ’05 wouldn’t be very different from ’04. But five of them los...

When seven Russian women made it to the last sixteen, it seemed ’05 wouldn’t be very different from ’04. But five of them lost in the fourth round and, with two — Kuznetsova and Sharapova — drawn against each other in the quarters, only one Russian woman will make the semis. Here’s the roll-call of defeats

• The biggest setback was the fall of French Open champion and highest seed Anastasia Myskina who lost to France’s Nathalie Dechy. The clay court expert couldn’t settle on the hard court, losing in straight sets

• Elena Dementieva, seeded sixth, is blessed with an all-court game that help her finish runners-up at the French and US Opens. But Patty Schnyder, for long in the shadow of compatriot Martina Hingis, prevailed in a tough three-setter

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• Part of the second rung of Russian girls, Nadia Petrova’s best Grand Slam performance is a semi-final spot. Against the multiple winner Serena Williams she never had a chance

• There’s even a third rung, and Evgenia Linetskaya, ranked 93rd in the world, falls in that category. So her loss to second seed Amelie Mauresmo wouldn’t have been too much of a shock for die-hard Russian fans

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