The Michigan Daily - WednesdaySeptember 4, 2002 - 19
Williams goes three
to put down Rubin
OSU receiver dismissed
NEW YORK (AP) - Here's how
Venus Williams responded to a rare
challenge at the U.S. Open: She dug
in, pulled out a three-set victory, then
went right out and practiced.
No room for imerfection for the
two-time defending champion.
She had all kinds of problems
against Chanda Rubin before emerg-
ing with a 6-2, 4-6, 7-5 victory yes-
terday to reach the quarterfinals for
the 18th time in her last 20 Grand
Slam tournaments and move closer to
another all-Williams final.
"Today just wasn't my best day,"
said Williams, who lost seven more
games in that match than in her pre-
vious three combined. "I had a lot of
short balls that I just missed. It was
definitely strange missing those
shots, but I tried to stay calm."
She'll play Monica Seles for a
semifinal berth. Still grunting on
each shot and still hitting with two
hands off both wings, Seles beat
Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-2 to end
Hingis' streak of six straight semifi-
nal appearances at the year's final
major. Hingis had ankle surgery in
May and made it into the field here
as a wild-card entry.
On the other half of the draw, 1998
champion Lindsay Davenport moved
into the semifinals by eliminating
unseeded Elena Bovina 3-6, 6-0, 6-2.
Davenport, playing just her fifth
tournament since right knee surgery
performed by the same doctor who
rebuilt Rubin's left knee, capitalized
on Bovina's 36 unforced errors.
Three-time French Open champion
Gustavo Kuerten was undone by his
55 unforced errors and lost in the
fourth round to No. 24 Sjeng
Schalken 6-3, 7-6 (6), 6-7 (5), 7-6
(4). Schalken next plays No. 28 Fer-
nando Gonzalez, who beat Arnaud
Clement in straight sets. Either
Schalken or Gonzalez will be a
Grand Slam semifinalist for the first
time.
Against Rubin, Williams bailed
herself out with the help of 41 win-
ners and seven aces, snapping one at
,121 mph. But she also made 41
errors, had six double faults, had her
serve broken five times, and allowed
her 25-set winning streak at the Open
to end.
Watching from the stands while
snapping pictures through a 2 1/2 -
foot lens, Williams' father, Richard,
wasn't pleased.
"It looks like all her techniques are
breaking down," he said.
When the match ended, Venus
Williams walked off court and swung
her racket in a forehand motion while
looking at her father, as though to
say, "I know, I know. We have some
work to do." Sure enough, 20 min-
utes later, she was on an adjacent
practice court, hitting while getting
instructions from Richard.
They might have been going over
what went wrong when she was bro-
ken three straight times in the second
set.
Or what led to the trouble at 5-5 in
the last set, with Williams facing two
break points. But the 14th-seeded
Rubin, who's had two operations on
her left knee since January 2001 and
appeared to be gasping for air after
longer rallies, finally succumbed to
Williams' constant pressure.
Rubin sent a forehand wide on the
first break point, then put another
COLUMBUS (AP) - Ohio State
head coach Jim Tressel said yester-
day that he removed wide receiver
Angelo Chattams from the team so
Chattams could confront a personal
situation in his hometown of Day-
ton.
Tressel said Chattams had to deal
with something that happened in
July but said he knew no further
details.
"The only thing I know is, we had
him go home to find out a little bit
of what the situation is so that we
can respond to it," he said.
Tressel said Chattams told him,
"that there may be something he had
to take care of."
He said no further decisions
would be made regarding Chattams'
status on the team until more infor-
mation was known.
Tressel called the removal a "dis-
traction" but said the eighth-ranked
Buckeyes would move on.
"It's not unlike a game," Tressel
said. "A fumble happens. Some-
times you can't find out right there
in the game what happened. You've
got to go to the next play."
The 5-foot-l, 185-pound sopho-
more had two catches for 26 yards
in nine games last year. He played in
Ohio State's season opener against
Texas Tech on Aug. 24 but didn't
have any catches.
The Buckeyes have lost several
key players recently.
Late last month, fullback Jesse
Kline quit the team because of con-
tinuing injuries.
Flanker Chris Vance and freshman
defensive lineman Quinn Pitcock
were forced to sit out the Buckeyes'
season opener - Vance for an
unspecified violation of team poli-
cy, Pitcock because he was arrested
for underage drinking.
Fullback Branden Joe was arrest-
ed and charged with drunken driv-
ing after police found him asleep in
a car about 3:45 a.m. on a highway
ramp near campus. He is suspended
from the team.
AP PHOTO
Venus Williams needed to go the distance to take care of Chanda Rubin. She will
face Monica Seles for the right to play in the semifinals.
forehand into the net to close a 17-
stroke rally. She threw her head back,
sighed, and staggered along the base-
line.
"I had rushed so many shots,
missed so many," Williams said. "I
was just happy to be able to get
through those points."
Up to that part of the match,
Rubin's attacking style kept Williams
off-balance, though it didn't produce
all that many winners: 15.
"I gave myself a chance in the
match. As a competitor, you want to
go out in every match and do that,"
Rubin said. "But it's disappointing
not to win it when the chances were
there. You look up - you're right
there for the match."
Williams is always there, particu-
larly when it comes to U.S. hard-
court tournaments, where her record
is 18-0 in 2002, and has lost just two
such matches in the past three years.
She's 58-6 overall this year, with
three of the losses to younger sister
Serena, who's seeded No. 1 at the
Open and was to play No. 11 Daniela
Hantuchova later yesterday for the
right to meet Davenport.
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