Kournikova Upsets No. 2 Davenport

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

March 25, 1998 / 9:54 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Russian Anna Kournikova knocked off a top-10 player for the third consecutive match Wednesday, scoring a 6-4, 2-6, 6-2 victory against American Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals of the $4.6 million Lipton Championships.

The 16-year-old Kournikova, seeded 23rd, whipped fifth seed and two-time champion Monica Seles of the United States on Monday and followed Tuesday with a 6-3, 6-0 triumph against ninth seed Conchita Martinez of Spain. She avenged a three-set loss to Davenport in just her second match of the year.

In a women's quarterfinal match tonight, third seed Jana Novotna of the Czech Republic will battle eighth-seeded Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario.

Davenport was derailed in her effort for a fifth consecutive semifinal, suffering her fourth consecutive loss to a teen-ager. Five of Davenport's six losses this year have come to teens -- two to Hingis and one each to Venus and Serena Williams, in addition to Wednesday's loss.

On the men's side, 18th seed Tin Henman of Britain knocked off the 10th seed, Brazilian Gustavo Kuerten, 6-2, 6-4, to reach the semifinals. Third-seeded Marcelo Rios of Chile takes on Sweden's Thomas Enqvist, seeded 22nd, tonight.

Rios looks to move a step closer to the world No. 1 ranking tonight. Rios, who stormed past 1996 runner-up Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia, 6-2, 6-3 on Tuesday, can supplant American Pete Sampras as the No. 1 player in the world if he wins this tournament. If he reaches the final, Rios is assured at least the No. 2 spot.

Second seed Petr Korda of the Czech Republic could have taken the top spot if he reached the semifinals, but he lost Monday to Henman, whose countryman, fourth-seeded Greg Rusedski, lost his chance at No. 1 with Tuesday's loss to Enqvist.

Henman had a little trouble disposing of Keurten, the reigning French Open champion who failed in an effort to match his best result of the season. Keurten reached the semifinals in Memphis in February.

Novotna seeks her eighth consecutive match victory tonight. She skipped the Australian Open and its warmup events at the start of the season but rejoined the tour in Europe, where she advanced to the semifinals of the Paris Open and the final of Faber Grand Prix in Hannover, Germany, before capturing the EA-Generali Open in Austria.

Sanchez Vicario is 15-1 this season with a tournament victory at Sydney in January. She won this event in 1992-93 but lost to Novotna2 three times last year.

First prize is $360,000 for the men and $235,000 for the women.