Feverish Seles raises the temperature

TENNIS: Monica Seles, a fever pounding her head as her opponent clumped down serves at up to 120 m.p.h., happily brought a feeling of deja vu, to say nothing of deja grunt, to the Australian Open yesterday when she defeated Venus Williams, the number two seed, for the first time in seven meetings to reach tomorrow's women's semi-final against Martina Hingis.

Between them, Seles and Hingis have won this title seven times, although for both the victories in Melbourne remain the last of their grand slam successes. Hingis, the third seed, has appeared in the past five finals, winning from 1997 to 1999. Seles, who also won on three consecutive occasions from 1991 to 1993, returned from the 1993 stabbing incident to win for a fourth time in 1996.

At the time it seemed that the Yugoslav-born American had completed her recuperation, but since 1996 Seles has not won another major to add to her total of nine.

The groundswell of public support for the 28-year-old number eight seed is growing with every round, although it remains to be seen how much the 6-7, 6-2, 6-3 victory over Williams, herself troubled by hamstring problems, took out of her.

Seles, hitting the lines with a consistency reminiscent of her glory days, played one of her finest tactical matches for many a long year in the grip of a virus.

Venus has complained of tendinitis in her left knee throughout the event. Yesterday, when she called for a medical break at 4-4 in the first set, it was assumed that the problem had flared up again, but this time it was her right hamstring.

Between points she walked with a posture that was a cross between John Wayne and Donald Duck, but once the ball was in play there were no obvious problems, save for a tendency to struggle with her forehand. Seles concentrated on her own game and reaped the dividends.

Seles has been working hard to disguise her serve. Too often her variable ball toss has been a giveaway. But Williams could never be sure, and Seles dropped her serve only once, in the first set. "Monica deserved to win," said Williams. "Maybe she will win the title, and that will be an exciting story."

So it would, but first she has to overcome Hingis, who had a relatively comfortable 6-2, 6-3 quarter-final win over Italy's unseeded Adriana Serra-Zanetti.

Now, with the Williams sisters and the injured Lindsay Davenport not around to block her path, she must be thinking that she might add to her previous five grand slam titles.

In the all-Swedish men's quarter-final, the 16th seed Thomas Johansson defeated Tim Henman's fourth-round conqueror Jonas Bjorkman 6-0, 2-6, 6-3, 6-4 and will now meet Jiri Novak (number 26) of the Czech Republic in the last four.

Guardian service