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Journalism of Courage
KEY BISCAYNE, March 26: Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, somewhat lost in the shuffle of teen-aged phenoms who seem to have taken over the WTA Tour, stormed into the semi-finals of the Lipton Championships yesterday.
The 26-year-old eighth seed had her way with another tour veteran on a blustery night, crushing listless third-seeded Czech Jana Novotna 6-1 6-1 in just 53 minutes in a quarter-final clash.
In the semi-finals, Sanchez will face 16-year-old Russian Anna Kournikova, who picked up her third consecutive top 10 player by ousting second-ranked Lindsay Davenport 6-4 2-6 6-2 earlier in the day. “I think I’m getting some confidence by beating the number two in the world,” Kournikova said after taking down the towering American.
The other women’s semi-final pits top seed and defending champion Martina Hingis against Venus Williams.
On the men’s side, rising star Marcelo Rios of Chile, the third seed, moved a step closer to the world number one ranking by advancing to the semi-finals with a victory overSweden’s Thomas Enqvist in an aborted match.
Rios seized control midway through the first set and was leading 6-2 2-0 when the 24th-ranked Enqvist retired due to tendinitis of the right wrist.Rios earned a semifinal meeting with Briton Tim Henman, who this week has snapped out of a three-month funk during which he lost in the first round of five of his last six tournaments.
Henman bounced 10th-seeded Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten 6-2 6-4.
