Huber Advancing Through the Teens

It’s looking as if Anke Huber needs to pick on someone her own size, or age. The 22-year-old German has advanced to the quarterfinals of the Acura Classic by beating a couple of kids, 16-year-old Anna Kournikova and, on Thursday, 17-year-old Venus Williams.

That sets up a meeting tonight with the super teen, 16-year-old Martina Hingis. The top-seeded Hingis at least will offer more resistance than the other two teenagers did. Kournikova won only one game from Huber, who is seeded sixth.

In Thursday’s match, Williams fought hard in the first set, then capitulated after being broken in the second. Huber won, 7-6 (7-4), 6-4.

Meanwhile, second-seeded Monica Seles put her inconsistency behind her in the night match at Manhattan Country Club. To say she dominated Natasha Zvereva in her quarterfinal match was a massive understatement.

The score was 6-1, 6-1, but the real story was worse. Zvereva won only seven points in the first set, one from a double fault, and the set lasted only 18 minutes. Seles committed only one unforced error in the set, five in the match.

The second set was more of Seles’ unerring and powerful groundstrokes. Zvereva, ranked No. 27, managed 10 points in the second set.

Seles said it was the best tennis she has played in a long while.

“It was just one of the those nights when everything was going,” Seles said. “Whatever I tried worked well. It was just one of those nights that you wish you had more [of].”

In an earlier, second-round match, fifth-seeded Arantxa Sanchez Vicario had to work hard to defeat Ai Sugiyama, 6-3, 7-5. The day’s longest match produced an upset. Nathalie Tauziat defeated eighth-seeded Kimberly Po, 7-6 (11-9), 4-6, 6-4, in 2 hours 22 minutes.

The Huber-Williams match took 1 hour 41 minutes and was played under cloudy and breezy conditions.

Huber, ranked 11th, dispatched Williams and offered reserved praise for the still-developing player. Only last week, Huber had guffawed at Williams’ insistence that her impending match against Hingis at a tournament at Carlsbad would be “nothing special.”

“What a joke,” Huber blurted when told of Williams’ remarks.

After her victory, Huber took the long view of Williams’ brief and unusual career. Williams, who has entered only eight tournaments this year--Huber has played 16--has now lost the curiosity factor that she used to hold with other players.

“Everyone [on tour] has seen her play,” Huber said. “She’s just another player. A young player, a good player, a famous player already. I guess she belongs to the tour.”

Williams continues to present a predictable game to opponents. Thursday was no exception. Williams’ potent serves would have been more effective had she gotten in more than 53% of them.

Huber struggled to return the first serves but took advantage of the seconds. She also exploited an inconsistent forehand.

“I played 80% to her forehand,” Huber said. “But she made 80-90 of her errors on her forehand.”

Williams gained a break in the second set but lost her serve in the eighth game. She appeared to wilt after than. Huber broke Williams to win the match.

“I was happy I got that break,” Huber said. “It was important. After that, she missed a lot of easy balls.”

Williams, ranked 59th, has a modest record against higher-ranked opponents. Only once has she beaten a top-10 player. That was at Indian Wells against ninth-ranked Iva Majoli. Williams also pushed Lindsay Davenport to three sets in the quarterfinals there.

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Acura Classic

FEATURED MATCHES

Beginning at 11 a.m.

* No. 4 Lindsay Davenport vs. Nathalie Tauziat

* No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez Vicario vs. Amy Frazier

Beginning at 7 p.m.

* No. 1 Martina Hingis vs. No. 6 Anke Huber