Mauresmo slumps out of US Open

THIRD seed Amelie Mauresmo slumped out of the US Open yesterday following a listless 6-4 6-1 defeat by fellow Frenchwoman Mary Pierce in the quarter-finals.

Pierce took advantage of a nervey display from Mauresmo to reach the last four at Flushing Meadows for the first time.

She will next face either second seed Lindsay Davenport or sixth seed Elena Dementieva.

“What can I say? I am 30 and I have been on the tour for 17 years and there are still firsts for me. That’s pretty amazing.

“I am just feeling so great. I am healthy and able to play out here in front of my fans. It’s great.”

Mauresmo, who has never won a Grand Slam title, looked tight from the start and allowed Pierce to surge into a 5-2 lead.

The third seed lifted her game a little to recover to 5-4, but then handed Pierce the set when she mis-hit a forehand wide.

Pierce, runner-up to Justine Henin-Hardenne at French Open in June but avenged that defeat in the previous round, picked up where she left off against the Belgian with some fine play.

Mauresmo contributed to her own downfall with a succession of errors and double-faults, mostly on important points.

Pierce broke to lead 2-0 and repeated the feat in the sixth game to clinch victory in 65 minutes.

Nadia Petrova took Maria Sharapova close in their quarter-final encounter, but the top seed had just enough to edge past her Russian counterpart.

Sharapova, who had not lost a set prior to this match, took two and a half hours to clinch a 7-5 4-6 6-4 victory over the ninth-seeded Petrova.

The 18-year-old has made it to the semi-finals in three of the four Grand Slams this year and faces fourth seed Kim Clijsters after the Belgian knocked out 10th-seeded Venus Williams, 4-6 7-5 6-1, in a quarter-final match.

Nobody beats Roger Federer five times and gets away with it, so Argentine David Nalbandian has reasons to be fearful in today’s quarter-final.

Nalbandian won his first five matches at senior level against the Swiss world number one and still holds a 5-2 advantage in their head-to-head record, including a victory at the 2003 US Open.

That’s a rare phenomenon given Federer’s current dominance of the men’s game and the Swiss is itching to put the record straight.

“I like the challenge with Nalbandian. I don’t have a great record against him so it will be nice to play him.

“I had some tough losses against him. The last two I think I won against him but still my record’s pretty bad against him.

“I like to play against guys who have beaten me, especially early in the career, try to get them back. He was a tough opponent for me for a long, long time, up until I beat him at the Masters Cup for the first time (in 2003), and then also the Australian Open (in 2004).

“We haven’t played since. It will be interesting to see now how both players have improved.”

Federer is seeking to become the first man to win both Wimbledon and US Open in consecutive years since tennis turned professional in 1968.

“I’m not there yet ... but I’m happy I’ve not been using too much energy.”