Venus Williams yesterday again brushed aside her father's prediction that sister Serena would become the better of the two by sweeping past her younger sibling 6-4, 6-2 to reach the semi-finals of the Italian Open in Rome.
Victory in the baseline battle earned 17-year-old Venus, who also beat Serena in Australia earlier this year, a meeting against either fifth seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, of Spain, or American Lisa Raymond, seeded 15.
World No.1 Martina Hingis preserved her unblemished record against teenage rival Anna Kournikova, winning 6-2, 6-4. She now plays 16-year-old Mirjana Lucic, of Croatia, or French No.12 seed Sandrine Testud.
qKarol Kucera, of Slovakia, who reached the world's top 10 for the first time this year, looks ready to make further progress after ending the hopes of Thomas Muster in the German Open with a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
Muster, whose 40 clay-court titles are more than any man currently playing, had been hoping to reach the semi-finals here for the first time and perhaps make a challenge to equal the record of nine Super Nine titles held by Pete Sampras and Andre Agassi.
Kucera now plays Albert Costa, the Spaniard who looks likely to regain his place in the top 20 after a good run, which con-tinued when he beat Frenchman Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 6-3.
Gustavo Kuerten, the French Open champion, double-faulted on match point and blew another in losing 4-6, 7-6 (10-8), 6-4 to Spain's Alex Corretja in the quarter-finals.
qScotland's hopes of staging Britain's Davis Cup tie with India in the World Group qualifying round were dashed yesterday when it was announced that it will be played on Nottingham's hard courts from September 25 to 27.
British captain David Lloyd was considering playing the match on grass, and had also suggested taking it north of the Border, but decided against it because India enjoy playing on grass and because the tie is so late in the season.
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