By Etienne Stekelenburg
September 4 2004

Swiss Patty Schnyder wins her epic battle against Daniela Hantuchova in three sets 6-4,4-6, 7-6. Serena Williams wins laborious in two sets with 42 unforced errors against French Tatiana Golovin 7-5, 6-4. Jennifer Capriati defeats Vera Douchevina after losing the second set tie-break 6-0, 6-7, 6-3. Patty Schnyder of Switzerland is through to the next round after beating Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia. “It was a strange match”, said the Swiss No.1,”some games we didn’t play at all and sometimes we served good and hit great winners”.

Both players won sloppy sets; Schnyder won the first 6-4 and Hantuchova the second 6-4. The real match started in the third set. They took the set into an exciting tie-break, Patty had to save matchpoint before winning the match. 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (8).

Serena Williams was playing her worst tennis so far. The young French Tatiana Golovin played a good match against the candidate for the title but could not make us of the 42 unforced errors that were produced by Williams.

Williams said her missing her shots was not a mental thing. “I was just going for too much and I was not looking at the ball”.

Tatiana Golovin thought her match against Serena Williams was a good
experience. “You know I really enjoyed it and the crowd did too, that is important”. She also said that playing Williams now was better than their match at Wimbledon. “You know I had my changes and I was ready for what she was going to do”.

Jennifer Capriati started out leaving Douchevina far behind in the first set, 6-0 in 17 minutes. However the American could not keep up the same act in the second set. Russian Vera Douchevina took the second set to a tiebreak and won in it 7-4.

Douchevina obviously had to overcome a nervous first set when Capriati steamrollered the Russian from the start. In the second set it was a different match and Vera came up with some good shots.

Jennifer had never seen her opponent play before and said:” I'd heard some things about her, but obviously it's still not the same as when you go up against them. But, you know, I think -- I mean, she's good off the baseline, got an unbelievable backhand. But, you know, she's a good little player.”

After some bad calls in the match Jennifer wonders why they don’t set up the “Hawk-eye” at the umpire chair. The slow-motion replay machine caught some of the calls being wrong. The bad calls didn’t affect the outcome of the match and title candidate Capriati could win the third set and the match to advance to the next round where she has to face Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

(2) Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) d. (31) Maria Vento-Kabchi (VEN) 62 60
(12) Ai Sugiyama (JPN) d. Jelena Kostanic (CRO) 61 63
(6) Elena Dementieva (RUS) d. (28) Nathalie Dechy (FRA) w/o (left thigh strain)
(10) Vera Zvonareva (RUS) d. (23) Fabiola Zuluaga (COL) 64 75
(8) Jennifer Capriati (USA) d. Vera Douchevina (RUS) 60 67(4) 63
(15) Patty Schnyder (SUI) d. Daniela Hantuchova (SVK) 64 46 76(6)
(16) Francesca Schiavone (ITA) d. (WC) Angela Haynes (USA) 63 76(3)
(3) Serena Williams (USA) d. (30) Tatiana Golovin (FRA) 75 64