Keothavong bows out

Olympic champion Elena Dementieva brought British number one Anne Keothavong’s surprise run at the US Open to a close in straight sets in New York.

Dementieva was bidding to be just the third player to land an Olympic and US Open double after Steffi Graf in 1988 and Venus Williams in 2000.

The Russian advanced to the fourth round and a meeting with China’s world number 36 La Ni, after beating 24-year-old Keothavong 6-3 6-4 on the Louis Armstrong Stadium court.

Yet the match was not at all one-sided, with Keothavong pushing Dementieva all the way only to convert just three of 10 break points in the 88-minute encounter.

Keothavong had been the first British woman to reach the US Open third round since Sara Gomer and Jo Durie in 1991 and she was bidding to become the first to reach the fourth round since Durie in the same year.

She instead got off to the worst possible start as Dementieva broke her serve in the opening game of the match before the Londoner recovered admirably by immediately breaking back against the world number five.

There was another break in the third game, when Dementieva, having won a challenge on her second break point, powered into a 2-1 lead when the point was replayed.

Finally the 26-year-old managed to hold serve and at 3-1 down the pressure was all on Keothavong to stay in touch.

She did so, starting the game with an ace and closing it out with a wide serve that Dementieva returned at full stretch before wrong-footing her illustrious opponent by sending the ball back to the same spot as the fifth seed headed towards the middle of the baseline.

Dementieva, the 2004 US Open runner-up, won the next game to love to take a 4-2 lead but again the Briton stayed in contention with a confident service display.

At 5-3 down on her own serve, though, Keothavong succumbed once more to the stronger Dementieva, who wrapped up the first set.

Keothavong is on course to become the first British woman to break into the top 70 since Sam Smith in 1999 having upset 25th seed Francesca Schiavone of Italy in three sets on Wednesday.

The east London woman started the second set brightly by earning a break point off the fifth seed’s serve in the opening game, only for Dementieva to fight back to deuce. Keothavong doggedly kept her opponent working though, denying her four game points before a weak forehand to the net handed the Briton another break point.

This time it was Keothavong’s turn to produce the unforced error as she failed to steer her return to a tame second serve inside the lines. The missed opportunity seemed to signal the end of her resistance as Dementieva wrapped up the game.

Keothavong bounced back with a service victory and then earned another break point in the next game.

Again Dementieva recovered to hold serve and she took control of the match by breaking her opponent in the fourth game to take a 3-1 lead in the second set.

Keothavong showed her disappointment vocally and she let rip two ferocious forehand winners in the next game to earn another break point.

This time she converted, sending a low forehand over the net to pull Dementieva out of position at the net and leaving the Russian to net her next shot.

That got Keothavong back on track at 3-2 down with serve, and although she committed her third double fault of the match to hand the Beijing gold medal winner the first point of the sixth game, she held to level the set as Dementieva’s unforced error count continued to rise.

In the first set the fifth seed had committed only four to Keothavong’s 13 but in the second set the count was nearly level, 14 from the Briton, 13 to the Russian.

Keothavong did not need her opponent’s unforced errors to break serve next time around, producing three great forehand winners to go ahead for the first time in the set at 4-3.

Such was the see-saw nature of the match that it came as little surprise when Dementieva broke straight back and then found herself in a battle to prevent another loss of serve.

Keothavong earned her ninth and 10th break points of the match only to see her more illustrious opponent again pull through and take a 5-4 lead.

That left the Londoner serving to save the match and she was quickly 0-40 down. Dementieva squandered her first match point and saw a net cord force a service return out but she did not waste her third opportunity and brought Keothavong’s US Open bid to an end.