TENNIS/Australian Open: To start the day about €100,000 better off without having to break sweat must have been mildly appealing even to a multimillionaire such as Andre Agassi.
For Fabiola Zuluaga it was simply sensational, the more so because she made history by becoming the first Colombian to reach the semi-finals of a slam.
The ninth day of the Australian Open was remarkable for the great French injury debacle. Sebastien Grosjean lasted only 10 games against Agassi before pulling up lame, and poor Amelie Mauresmo, whose career has been heavily punctuated by injuries, had to cry off, literally, with a bad back before her match with Zuluaga.
The 25-year-old Colombian, who entered the professional circuit via the Nick Bollettieri pressure academy of hard knocks in Florida, now plays Justine Henin-Hardenne tomorrow for a place in Saturday's final, something that would have seemed unthinkable only 10 days ago.
"We are not in a good way at home so this is good for us and the country. We can forget all the bad things," she said.
Zuluaga is a little down the Colombian ladder of sporting fame from Juan Pablo Montoya and a clutch of baseball and football players, but her semi-final may warrant the president, Alvaro Uribe, picking up the phone to Melbourne.
She has not sprung from nowhere; she is the 32nd seed, and this is her 13th slam, having made her debut at the US Open in 1998. But previously she had never reached the last 16, let alone the final four: "I just want to keep going and going and going."
Going, going, gone may be the reality when she meets Henin, who defeated the fifth seed Lindsay Davenport 7-5, 6-4. It was only the second time, apart from a walkover, that the world number one has beaten the American in seven meetings, and the first time in straight sets.
Initially it hardly looked likely to end that way, with Davenport rushing to a 4-0 lead, her right arm swinging like a mighty pendulum, with the Belgian scampering around the Rod Laver Court in pursuit of lost causes. Here was the Henin of 2002 vintage, being overpowered by a big hitter.
"Lindsay was playing unbelievably well, but I stayed calm and fought for every point without thinking what the score was," said Henin, who admitted at the beginning of the tournament that playing her first slam as the world's best was not easy.
Last year her 7-5, 5-7, 9-7 fourth-round victory over Davenport, during which she suffered severe cramp in the final set, had convinced Henin that she could beat the power players on all surfaces. She lost in the semi-final to Venus Williams, but later won the French and US Opens to become the number one and envelop herself in confidence.
Davenport, without a slam title since winning here in 2000, could never summon that same self- belief, even though she served for the first set at 5-3 and had three set points on the Henin serve at 5-4. Thereafter her resolve to win came in half-measures.
"I went for too much. This defeat was more about me than her playing particularly well," said the American.
But she was kidding herself, something Zuluaga will not do. - Guardian Service
