Mauresmo making the right moves

WIMBLEDON/ Women's singles:  Yesterday Italy's Silvia Farina Elia was hoping that Court Two, the graveyard of the champions, would be her resurrection day. Like all the favourites yesterday, Farina Elia's opponent in the fourth-round match, Amelie Mauresmo, had other designs.

The French number one was part of the re-establishment of the old order.

The teenagers, apart from Russia's Maria Sharapova, were all safely buried and Farina Elia, a veteran, is forced to return next year if she wishes to equal her best run, the quarter-final of 2003.

Gone too is the youngest player in the draw, Tatiana Golovin. While the French have been fond in the past of dealing with the aristocracy with a vigorous brutality, the 16-year-old Russian-born convert disappeared in a puff of smoke on Centre Court 6-2, 6-1, courtesy of the queen herself, Serena Williams.

Some obscene statistics illustrated the veracity of Williams's muscular game.

The match lasted 41 minutes, excluding changeovers, one game lasted just six minutes and the American also delivered the fastest serve ever hit by a woman at Wimbledon, 126 m.p.h.

Who is surprised? Golovin will be back at 17 years old, a little less shell-shocked and better prepared; Farina Elia, at 32, may not.

Are you beginning to fall in love with the grass now? Mauresmo was asked after her 7-5, 6-3 win. "Yes," she answered without hesitation.

For one of the most reflective players on the tour, Mauresmo's brisk response is a measure of her confidence this year.

Playing with her typical flourish, she has also looked more composed than when she last competed in 2002 and is steadier with her game and, importantly, her head.

It has never been the physical side of her tennis that has let her down, always the mental. But there have been no visible signs of nervous collapses and for that people here are beginning to look at Mauresmo, as they are Tim Henman, through a different prism.

A meeting now with Argentina's Paola Suarez (who overcame Rita Grande of Italy 4-6, 6-0, 6-2) a soft draw at this stage, could just be the match to propel her into the semi-finals for the first time since 2002.

"Again this year I have a pretty good feeling and a good sensation on this surface," said Mauresmo. "It took me a couple of years to understand how to play on this surface and now I'm starting to feel comfortable. So it's a very good feeling actually."

Joining the heavyweight names of Mauresmo and Williams are Lindsay Davenport, the 1999 champion, and two-times semi-finalist Jennifer Capriati who defeated Nadia Petrova of Russian 6-4, 6-4 .

Davenport earned a place in the semi-final where she meets a Russian 11 years her junior, 17-year-old Maria Sharapova who yesterday defeated Japan's Ai Sugiyama 5-7, 7-5, 6-1 .

The principal concern for those left is that Williams seems ton have found another gear in her game.

Golovin, hitting some impressive shots and competitively sparky in many of the points, simply wasn't heavy enough all round to realistically compete but she did break the top seed's serve in the first game of the second set with dire consequences.

The response of Williams was to win the next 17 points as she accelerated to a 6-1 second set.

"That's definitely having a gear. I didn't even know that," said Williams when informed of her streak. "That's pretty good yeah, but I really didn't think I played well today. I thought I wasn't moving and I didn't do some things that I wanted to do.

"I wanted to come in a little more but I guess I can't complain too much."

Williams's father Richard, never short of a view, suggested afterwards that Wimbledon should introduce more razzmatazz, a chorus of singing and dancing pom pom girls. Tennis television ratings in the USA have been falling and discussions about what to do have taken a scatter-gun approach.

"What I liked actually was People's Sunday," said Serena. "It was a completely different atmosphere. And I really enjoyed that."

Fewer posh people?

"Yes, that would be a lot of fun."

Davenport's advance came at the expense of 19-year-old Karolina Sprem, who had injured her foot but declined to give that as an excuse for her 6-2, 6-2 drubbing.

Sprem will be obliged to explain the lost point during her match against Venus Williams for the rest of her life and perhaps Davenport's sharply-executed grass-court game offers her relief from some of the cheaper shots that landed on her lap.

Venus walked away defeated but with dignity and grace, leaving her sister Serena to verbally take the axe to Sprem who, it must be said, handled it with the gritty dismissiveness of a street fighter.

Sprem is a tough kid from Croatia and we will see more of her next year.

But with one new face gone another arrives and the Davenport semi-final match against Russia's Sharapova will tell just how much the young Russian has learned from last year's run to the fourth round, and whether Davenport's mobility can deal with the raking ground strokes of the equally physical Sharapova.

Determined to shake off comparisons to the wasted talent of Anna Kournikova, who also reached the semi-final here in 1997 when she was just 16, Sharapova appears to be a different animal.

One problem that might arise when facing the finely-balanced game of Davenport is that Japan's Ai Sugiyami is the only player she has faced who is ranked higher than she is.

Davenport is in a different tennis weight division. We may just have to wait another year for the young Russian to take centre stage.