Graf holds nerve in lengthy rain dance

Steffi Graf and Venus Williams came out to play their quarter-final match at noon. After 54 minutes they were darting for cover. An hour and a half later they were back for a 10-minute, three-game exchange and then back under Centre Court. At 7.35 p.m. they again emerged solemn faced, having played one hour and 22 minutes of tennis since midday. And so the rain dance continued as the 30-year-old German held her nerve to see off the biggest threat to her championship hopes so far in the competition.

It was a match always on the edge and packed with robust exchanges between two wonderfully athletic players and although it clearly failed to gain any continuity, it sparkled with tension and the possibility that here in Williams, was the new face of Wimbledon.

That is perhaps why, when the American teenager finally drove her forehand wide of the tramlines in the third set and a break down for 6-2 3-6 6-4 Graf's primal scream cut through the Centre Court roar like she had just won her eighth title.

In that moment Graf had halted what many had believed would be a changing of the guard. Becker and Graf in one year. Now that would be too much. Graf is not yet ready to walk into the twilight with Boris.

It took only 32 minutes for the former champion to win the first set 6-2 breaking the formidable Williams in the sixth and eighth games. Warming to the challenge the 19-year-old then hit back breaking Graf three times in a set that was balancing on the most delicate of plays.

Powerful serving and searing ground strokes as well as movement around the court, that belittled her towering six-foot frame, shot Williams back into contention taking the second set 6-3 after the two players returned from a rain break.

In the final set the German's head held. She broke Williams in the fifth game of the third set before critically defending three break points in the following game for a fraught and emotional finish.

"For all the breaks I think it was an unbelieveable match," said Graf. "I was trying to put pressure on her all the time but I didn't think I could do."

"I was serving a little more to her forehand and taking a little bit of pace off her with my slice. She is very tough and that's the reason why I'm happy right now. I've said it before and I'll say it again, she is a future world number one," said Graf.

"During the rain breaks I never watched the replays of the game but she did. I thought that was curious. Why would you watch a game you were playing in." said Graf "I could have played better on some key points," said Williams. "I should have been more aggressive on the break points."

"I don't think the breaks affected me too much. I was able to come back and compete in a reasonable manner," she said.

US open champion Lindsay Davenport also earned a place in the semi-finals for the first time in her career with her 6-3, 6-4 win over holder Jana Novotna. It was the only other game completed. If Davenport reaches the final she will take over from Martina Hingis as the number one ranked player in the world.

The 23-year-old American came into the contest never having lost to last year's champion in five meetings and went on to demonstrate that this trend between them could well remain until the end of 30-year-old Novotna's career.

"Everybody has a player they do not like playing against and Lindsay Davenport, for me, is that player," said Novotna.

Quite simply Davenport, who has still not dropped a set since the championship began and has had to contest only one tie break, was too venomous in her serving and back hand ground strokes.

Davenport took only 32 minutes to break Novotna and hold for the first set 6-3. In the second the American broke to take a 5-3 lead but the rain arrived leaving the match, and no doubt Novotna's mind, delicately poised.

But champions don't go easy and Novotna came out to deny Davenport, what was expected to be a winning service game, by breaking back to hold on by a thread at 5-4. In the desperate hope that the delay might have scrambled the younger player's concentration. But no. Instead, the younger player impudently broke back with ease, Novotna finally submitting 6-4.

"I knew that there were a few things that if I could just hold on to and do them, that I could win this match, and to break twice and not serve it out, that's not really what I wanted to do. But I was hitting well and felt confident," said Davenport.