Rafter reached the final four in his country’s biggest tournament for the first time by beating number 14 Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-0.Number five Yevgeny Kafelnikov was the top-seeded player remaining in the other half of the draw He was set to play No. 15 Arnaud Clement of France later Wednesday.Venus Williams is 28-centimeters (11 inches) taller than the 158-centimeter (5-foot-2) Coetzer and hits her serves 40 kph (25 mph) faster, which made their pairing look like a mismatch. For a while it was.Coetzer, seeded 10th, was content to keep the ball in play and wait for errors by an erratic Williams, who lost the first eight points, lost 16 of the first 19 and fell behind 4-0. In the first set she committed 19 errors and hit just one winner.”Let’s go, Venus, wake up!” a fan shouted.She did, holding serve with an ace to start the second set, then breaking for the first time when Coetzer double-faulted. Mistakes began to creep into the South African’s game, while Williams tamed her wild strokes somewhat.”I really had to pick myself up if I wanted to stay in the tournament,” Williams said.

“I don’t like to lose, and I just really didn’t want to.”But the rallies became especially sloppy down the stretch. Coetzer served for the victory at 5-3 but quickly committed four unforced errors and lost the game. Williams then had a chance to serve it out at 6-5 but won only one point, double-faulted and hit three groundstrokes wide to lose the game.Williams broke again, then concluded the ragged victory with an overhead winner. She smiled and sagged her shoulders in relief at her second consecutive three-set win.”Today,” she admitted, “was not one of my better days.”The start of the match was delayed half an hour by a shower that caught tournament officials by surprise. Play began after the retractable center court roof was closed for only the second time in the tournament.Heavy rain later swept across Melbourne Park, forcing delays to junior matches on outside courts.. Venus Williams overcame a slow start, a late deficit and an upset bid by number 10 seed Amanda Coetzer.

Venus Williams overcame a slow start, a late deficit and an upset bid by number 10 seed Amanda Coetzer.
One game from defeat, Williams rallied today to win 2-6, 6-1, 8-6 and reach the Australian Open semi-finals for the first time.The third-seeded Williams trailed 5-3 in the final set and won despite a whopping 56 unforced errors.”I pretty much fought for everything I got,” Williams said “Toward the end I cut down on my errors and moved forward I had been in that situation many times before. I had the experience of being in the hole.”Williams needs two more victories for her third consecutive Grand Slam tournament title.Defending champion Lindsay Davenport, seeded second, will play number 12 Jennifer Capriati in the other semi-final.Defending men’s champ Andre Agassi, seeded sixth, will play number 12 Patrick Rafter in the men’s semi-finals tomorrow. Rafter reached the final four in his country’s biggest tournament for the first time by beating number 14 Dominik Hrbaty 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-0.Number five Yevgeny Kafelnikov was the top-seeded player remaining in the other half of the draw.Williams is 11 inches taller than the 5-ft-2 Coetzer and hits her serves 25 mph faster, which made their pairing look like a mismatch. For a while it was.Coetzer was content to keep the ball in play and wait for errors by an erratic Williams, who lost the first eight points and 16 of the first 19 points as she fell behind 4-0.

In the first set she committed 19 errors and hit just one winner.”Let’s go, Venus, wake up!” a fan shouted.She did, holding serve with an ace to start the second set, then breaking for the first time when Coetzer double-faulted. Mistakes began to creep into the South African’s game, while Williams tamed her wild strokes somewhat.”I really had to pick myself up if I wanted to stay in the tournament,” Williams said. “I don’t like to lose, and I just really didn’t want to.”Coetzer served for the victory at 5-3 but quickly committed four unforced errors and lost the game. Williams then had a chance to serve it out at 6-5 but won only one point, double-faulted and hit three groundstrokes wide to lose the game.Williams broke again to go 7-6, then concluded the ragged victory with an overhead winner. She smiled and sagged her shoulders in relief at her second consecutive three-set win.”Today,” she admitted, “was not one of my better days.”The start of the match was delayed half an hour by a shower that caught tournament officials by surprise. Play began after the retractable center court roof was closed for only the second time in the tournament..