A Noble Defeat, A Triumph Of Courage

Sydney Morning Herald

Thursday January 27, 2005

Richard Hinds

It was desperately, spine-tinglingly close. The world No.1, Lindsay Davenport, beat the rising Australian star, Alicia Molik, 6-4, 4-6, 9-7 in a tense, absorbing Australian Open quarter-final played in debilitating heat and with a joyous spirit that had the Australia Day crowd standing to acclaim the skill and nerve of both players.

But the replay showed the margin may have been even more narrow than the scoreboard suggested. Just a centimetre or two either way.

Serving at 7-7 in the third set, Molik hit two aces. The score was advantage Molik. Then, it seemed to both the naked eye and the television replay, Molik pounded down a third ace to win the game. The linesman disagreed and called it out. Molik lost the point and, eventually, her serve was broken. Davenport then closed out the match.

Molik said she thought the serve was in, and she admitted the linesman's call distracted her before she served again.

"I was pretty frustrated about that particular one," she said. "When I served the next point, Lindsay got on to the return and I was a bit slow reacting. Maybe I was thinking about the call too much."

However, with typical good grace, Molik did not blame the call for her defeat.

"I mean, one point doesn't decide a tennis match. There were a lot of other things."

The disputed call again raised the question of whether machines should be used to help umpires deal with close calls.

As the Herald revealed yesterday, tennis authorities are testing several different types of machines including the Hawkeye system used by Channel Seven. One of these may be used at next year's Australian Open.

Nevertheless, that one call did not overshadow what was an incredibly tense and hard-fought match in steaming conditions. The American's experience and precision inevitably got her back into the game early in the final set after Molik seemed set to record the greatest victory of her promising career.

Molik, who turns 24 today, described the match as "the one that got away" but insisted she could remain positive.

"The bottom line is I probably had a chance out there to win today. But I guess I can be comforted by the fact that I feel like I am going to put myself in more positions like today to beat the top five players in the world."

She will get little argument there from Davenport.

"She's a great player," the victor said. "She pushed me hard. I felt definitely that I was under pressure in the match and not many girls make me feel like that."

Sport - Page 30

© 2005 Sydney Morning Herald

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