Injury halts Graf’s progress

“It’s disappointing, I’m kind of sad,” said the 28-year-old. Hopefully it will be a quick recovery. I hope it’s not too severe, I stopped early enough, I hope it doesn’t take too long.

Graf’s heartbreak puts another cloud over what was looking like a promising comeback. Until meeting the big-hitting Californian, Graf had not lost a set in three matches. Her fighting instincts servedher well during a tough second set where she won it on a sixth set point.

The injury was similar to one which delayed her planned comeback start last month in Paris. “It was such a good feeling to be playing well. The way things were happening it was nice,” she said.

Men’s top seed Pete Sampras was playing Austrian Thomas Muster for a quarter-final place later. Second seed Petr Korda knocked the last German out with a 7-6 (8-6), 6-2 defeat of Tommy Haas on the men’s side. Korda, who achieved a tennis dream with his trophy last month at the Australian Open, ploughed straight into a re-play of the Melbourne finale as he takes on Chile’s Marcelo Rios today for a semi-final spot.

Hass showed himself to be high-flyer earlier this week when he was allowed to co-pilot a military f-16 fighter jet, but was brought back to earth by Korda, the second seed from the Czech Republic.

Rios, the seventh seed, sent another German packing today, eliminating former Boris Becker protoge Nicolas Kiefer 6-4,6-3.

Red-hot Andre Agassi notched his 19th victory of the year as he rolled over his third Australian opponent in four matches, upsetting third seed Patrick Rafter 6-3, 3-6, 6-2.

The scoreline was a revenge win, as seven months ago in New York, Rafter knocked out the flagging American former world No 1 in the fourth round, going onto win the US Open.

Sixth seed Greg Rusedski of Britain picked up his pace to oust the last Spaniard in the field, Carlos Moya, 6-3, 7-5.

Swede Thomas Enqvist eliminateed last year’s finalist Bohdan Ulihrach of the Czech Republic 6-2, 7-6 (7-2).

Andrei Medvedev of the Ukraine beat Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, 6-1, 6-4.Graf, gunning for a shot at her longtime world No 1 position, came up short on her chances against Davenport, converting just three of 13 break points in the hard-fought contest.

Davenport, who came in with only a single defeat of Graf and five losses, broke first in the contest, taking a 4-3 lead as Graf saved one break point but returned long on thesecond.

The American earned the opening set on a debatable line call, judged good instead of just out despite a brief Graf protest. Four points later, in the first game of the second, Graf suffered again as a ball called out was over-ruled as good. The German went onto lose the game for 0-1, but broke straight back.

Graf showed the fire which took her to 21 Grand Slam titles before knee surgery last June knocked her out of the game and put her comptitive future in doubt until her comeback last month in Hanover, where she won a single match.

The third seed scored another break for 3-1 and held for 5-2 with two more aces — her fifth and sixth of the night. Graf was unable to capitalise on three set points in the ninth game and paid the price as Davenport broke back again, 4-5.

Twice again, Davenport got out of jail against two more of Graf’s set-winning chances, but the German smiled at the sky as she finally levelled at a set each after almost 90 minutes.