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Kournikova more than just a pretty face

Friday 04 August 2000 00:00 BST
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Anna Kournikova, famous for her looks but still without a tournament victory to her name, surprised the world No 2 Lindsay Davenport to reach the quarter-finals of the Acura Classic in Carlsbad, California. The Russian teenager beat the American 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

Anna Kournikova, famous for her looks but still without a tournament victory to her name, surprised the world No 2 Lindsay Davenport to reach the quarter-finals of the Acura Classic in Carlsbad, California. The Russian teenager beat the American 2-6, 6-4, 7-5.

"I think it was great, the match was awesome," said Kournikova, who stopped a run of three defeats and improved her record against Davenport to three wins and six defeats. "We had some unbelievable points. It brings some confidence to me to have this unbelievable match. "

Davenport said: "I blame myself for a lot of it but she certainly came up with a lot of great shots. When she got up in the third set, she started choking a bit but I couldn't do quite enough to get on top of her."

Davenport easily took the opening set. However, Kournikova began to fight back with punishing ground strokes and easily won the second set against the world No 2, who seemed to be troubled by a recurring groin injury. "It's been bothering me for a while," said Davenport, who refused to blame the injury for her defeat.

The victory prevented a possible third consecutive finals match-up between Davenport and the Wimbledon champion, Venus Williams, who advanced to the quarter-finals with a 6-0, 6-4 triumph over South Africa's Amanda Coetzer.

Monica Seles, the fourth seed and twice finalist in Carlsbad, secured a place in the quarterfinals by beating her fellow American Meilen Tu 7-5, 7-5.

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