Relaxed Venus Sits Pretty in Paris

PARIS — Venus Williams, a woman on a self-induced shopping budget, managed to savor some other, less-expensive treats in France.

She was talking over a plate of French fries shortly after taking out 11th-seeded Anke Huber of Germany on Sunday in the fourth round of the French Open, 7-6 (4), 6-2.

Knowing her audience, Williams offered the snack to waiting journalists outside the interview room at Roland Garros. “I can’t finish it by myself,” she said.

Spotting Venus Williams by herself has been rare the last couple of years. In 2000, Venus sightings before the French Open could be counted on one hand.

Now, minus her younger sister, U.S. Open champion Serena--who is at home in Florida nursing an injured knee--Williams is the family member in the spotlight, alone, and sounding calm, committed and, often, comical.

“My shopping has been restricted,” she said. “I’m only allowed to buy things I need. It’s getting out of control. It really was. I got my bills at home and I didn’t like it. I didn’t feel good because I owed the money.”

There was little talk of her injuries or any questions about the ever-present retirement rumors in the winter. The fourth-seeded Williams has been having an easier time on the court--not losing a set in four matches--than keeping track of her belongings. She lost two of her distinctive dresses and has gone through a couple of personal computers.

“I was in transportation,” Williams said of the lost dresses. “We switched cars. The laundry bag stayed in one car and it hasn’t turned up.”

Someone suggested that it would be easy to find out if the dresses ended up with another player.

“Yeah, if they can fit in it,” she said. “It [the dress] was made for me.”

And the computers?

“I was rushing to get the phone, tripped on the wire and the laptop broke,” she said. “And my other one, I had a small one like this I was functioning off of. It doesn’t work. I can’t fix it. And Serena’s is functioning, but I couldn’t take hers. We don’t have a big one anymore. It went dysfunctional.”

For Williams, who turns 20 later this month, this is starting to look a lot like 1997 at the U.S. Open, in the sense of the draw opening up for her. Then, she lost to Martina Hingis in the title match, beating Huber along the way, and Williams has not been back to a Grand Slam final since.

This time, she does not have to deal with the likes of Lindsay Davenport, who lost in the first round, or Serena. She will play eighth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain in the quarterfinals and could face fifth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain or 17-year-old qualifier Marta Marrero of Spain in the semifinals.

Were it not for one of her legendary comebacks, Sanchez-Vicario would not have made it past 16th-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria Sunday. Schett led, 6-0, 4-1, before unraveling. Sanchez-Vicario, who won 0-6, 6-4, 6-2, even won a point with a backhand winner after falling down earlier in the rally.

“I scratched my leg a lot,” she said. “Suddenly, I look up and see the ball coming back. I don’t know how I managed to pick the racket up left-handed and hit a backhand winner. That gave me a lot of confidence and turned everything around.”

Of the quarterfinalists, Williams, third-seeded Monica Seles and sixth-seeded Mary Pierce of France are the only players not to lose a set. Top-seeded Hingis of Switzerland struggled against Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania before winning, 6-3, 0-6, 6-1, essentially acknowledging that she let the second set go after it became 4-0.

“I wasn’t nervous about losing the second set 6-0 because I knew, just get the set over with,” said Hingis. “It’s like no way at this tournament you’re going to come back. It’s very hard. You don’t have to because you know it’s another set coming up.”

Hingis will next play Chanda Rubin. Rubin, who reached the French Open quarterfinals in 1995, defeated Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, 6-4, 7-5. Seles survived a hard-fought contest against crowd favorite 13th-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, winning, 7-5, 6-3. It was probably good psychological preparation for her next match, against Pierce, who looked impressive in her 6-2, 6-1 victory over Asa Carlsson of Sweden.

“Here, I had the whole stadium really against me,” Seles said.

Sunday featured an impressive showing for the Spanish women and men. Martinez defeated Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 5-7, 6-3, 6-4, in 2 hours 39 minutes. Marrero ended the fine run of 24-year-old qualifier Rossana De Los Rios of Paraguay, who spent five years away from tennis.

Marrero won, 4-6, 6-0, 6-4, and predicted, speaking quietly, that she will beat Martinez in the next round.

Two other Spanish men advanced to the quarterfinals--10th-seeded Alex Corretja and 16th-seeded Juan Carlos Ferrero. Corretja, a finalist in Paris two years ago, beat Roger Federer of Switzerland, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 6-2, and Ferrero, playing in his first French Open, defeated Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-2, 6-2, 3-6, 6-3.

Ferrero did not offer a victorious prediction for his upcoming quarterfinal against Corretja but gave some hint of how the match may unfold.

“I would say 2 hours and 40 minutes and in four sets,” said the 20-year-old.

They were nearly joined by another Spaniard, Fernando Vicente. Vicente had a 5-2 lead in the fifth set against fourth-seeded Yevgeny Kafelnikov and was two points from winning, serving at 5-3, 30-0.

Kafelnikov, who will play fifth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten, of Brazil, fought back and won, 5-7, 6-3, 5-7, 7-6 (4), 8-6, in 3 hours 34 minutes. The final set took 53 minutes.

“I wish I could finish the match in three sets,” Kafelnikov said. “I’m really happy to survive. Everybody knows I’m a slow starter. I need at least 30 minutes to get into a match.”

Today’s Featured Matches

Schedule of matches on the show courts and others involving seeded players at the $10.25-million French Open at Roland Garros:

COURT CENTRAL

* Amelie Cocheteux and Nathalie Dechy, France, vs. Nicole Arendt and Manon Bollegraf (11), Netherlands

* Marat Safin (12), Russia, vs. Cedric Pioline (6), France

Lleyton Hewitt (9), Australia, vs. Albert Costa, Spain

* Alexandra Fusai and Nathalie Tauziat (6), France, vs. Mariaan de Swardt, South Africa, and Martina Navratilova

COURT SUZANNE LENGLEN

* Anna Kournikova, Russia, and Natasha Zvereva (4), Belarus, vs. Virginia Ruano-Pascual, Spain, and Paola Suarez (10), Argentina

* Magnus Norman (3), Sweden, vs. Andrei Medvedev, Ukraine

* Franco Squillari, Argentina, vs. Younes El Aynaoui (15), Morocco

* Jiri Novak and David Rikl (8), Czech Republic, vs. Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde (2), Australia

COURT 1

* Jennifer Capriati and Jelena Dokic, Australia vs. Martina Hingis, Switzerland, and Mary Pierce (3), France

* Juan Ignacio Carrasco and Jairo Velasco, Spain, vs. Wayne Ferreira, South Africa, and Yevgeny Kafelnikov (7), Russia