WIMBLEDON: Seventh seed Jelena Dokic was the principal casualty here at Wimbledon yesterday when she departed in the fourth round to Daniela Hantuchova 6-4, 7-5. The 19-year-old Russian, seeded 12, only made her Grand Slam debut last year, where she fell in the second round to Venus Williams. From Johnny Watterson in Wimbledon
Vying for magazine cover space with Anna Kournikova, 19-year-old Hantuchova has at least won a tournament, at Indian Wells, and now earns the right to play Serena Williams in the quarter-final.
Winning the first set 6-4, Hantuchova took the second to a tie-break before making the best of windy conditions and a rain delay.
Venus Williams despatched 28-year-old Lisa Raymond with some haste. Raymond was never likely to send the reigning champion out of the competition but even she could not have expected a first set of just 18 minutes, which washed over her and left her trailing 6-1.
Williams, stepping well inside the baseline to annihilate Raymond's second delivery, may have decided to avoid the possibility of encountering rain. The 6-2 win in the second set handed the number one seed her 18th straight Wimbledon singles win.
Raymond prospers more on the doubles circuit and in their only other meeting at last year's US Open came out only marginally better off, losing 6-3, 6-4.
The win brings Williams a meeting with Russian Elena Likhovtseva, who beat Magdalena Maleeva 6-3, 6-4 - the first time in six meetings she has beaten the Bulgarian 19th seed.
A Russian or an American, it hardly seems to matter to Williams in such overpowering form. Consequently the questions surrounded the issue of confidence, or rather, overconfidence.
"Never a danger of over confidence," she said. "I feel that going into a Grand Slam anyone can have a great day, anyone can come out loose, feeling great and give me a lot of trouble. So today it was nice that I played well."
As for Likhovtseva, she hasn't beaten Williams in any of their seven previous matches.
"I played her here last year, the third round maybe," said Williams, showing not a trace of concern. "She plays a nice game, deep and somewhat flat. So every ball that I get, I'm just going to get on top of it."
Serena Williams boomed Chandra Rubin off the court 6-3, 6-3 in a rain-interrupted match. Rubin, who had won at Eastbourne, had already surpassed her best run here but couldn't upset the Williams rhythm at all.
On an outside court last year's finalist, Justin Henin, faced stubborn resistence from 20-year-old Elena Dementieva. Henin required two tie breaks to get past the number 12 seed 7-6, 7-6 and was forced into a largely back-court game. Henin advances to meet Monica Seles in the quarter-finals.
Seles, who beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-2, 6-2 yesterday, has never won Wimbledon in eight previous appearances. It could be Seles's final run, as she has hinted at retirement later this year.
• Venus Williams (US) beat Lisa Raymond (US) 6-1 6-2
• Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) beat Mikhail Youzhny
(Russia) 6-3 6-3 7-5
