MELBOURNE, Australia -- Annoyed at her racket, Lindsay
Davenport flipped it aside, slumped into her changeover chair,
shook her head and muttered to herself.
|  | | Frustration hits home for Lindsay Davenport, but she still advances despite her poor play. |
Davenport's body language was bad Wednesday, but her serve was
good, and that saved her in the second round of the Australian
Open. The defending champion withstood an upset bid from qualifier
Greta Arn to win 6-2, 4-6, 6-2.
Seeded No. 2, Davenport said she felt fine physically, other
than being a little tired. But she played with none of the flair
she showed in winning the title last year.
"I was getting sooooo frustrated and fed up with the way I was
playing, and you can't do that," she said. "For whatever reason,
I didn't play as well as I can. Hopefully I'll get better. I don't
know."
On the tournament's third consecutive mild, sunny day, Conchita Martinez, the fifth seed, was beaten 5-7, 6-3, 8-6 by unseeded Italian Emannuelle Gagliardi.
Gagliardi produced her best performance at a grand slam event
when she beat former Wimbledon champion Martinez -- a
semifinalist last year -- in a sloppy match on Show Court 2.
The Swiss, suffering shoulder and thigh problems, needed
courtside treatment when Martinez was leading 6-5 and deuce in
the third set.
Gagliardi, who had led 4-2 in the third set, then returned to
serve out a match whose main statistic was the number of unforced
errors -- a massive 77 for Gagliardi and 64 for Martinez.
Meanwhile, No. 4-seeded Monica Seles beat Miroslava Vavrinec 6-2, 6-3. Seles' opponent in the fourth round could be 18-year-old Belgian Justine
Henin, who improved to 12-0 this year by beating Sarah Pitkowski
6-3, 6-2.
Henin's winning streak has boosted her ranking from 48th to a
career-high 22nd. Her next opponent will be No. 14 Sandrine Testud,
who was leading 6-4, 5-2 when Jing-Qian Yi retired because of a
back injury.
Russian Anna Kournikova, the No. 8 seed, eased
into the third round after a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Hungarian Rita Kuti Kis.
Kournikova came back from a break down in
each set. She won the last five games in a row after trailing
4-1 in the second set.
No. 12 Jennifer Capriati, a semifinalist last year, beat Miriam
Oremans 6-0, 6-2.
Davenport, who edged Jelena Dokic in a tense three-setter in the
opening round, squeaked though again thanks to her serve. She lost
only 10 points on her first serve, faced just one break point -- on
the final point of the second set -- and closed out the victory with her
ninth ace.
But she sheepishly admitted she gave off bad vibes.
"I was just getting a little crabby out there," Davenport
said. "I've allowed these girls to play well, and last year here I
wasn't allowing that to happen. I'm a little bit away from my 'A'
game right now."
Arn, a German ranked 146th, fared well swapping groundstrokes
with Davenport and could tell her opponent was out of sorts.
"Lindsay threw her racket two times," Arn noted. "It was kind
of frustrating for her. ... I had nothing to lose. It was a lot of
fun to play her, especially in such a big arena."
Davenport began to move better in the final set, slamming shots
into both corners to pull away. She has a favorable draw, with her
top rivals -- No. 1 Martina Hingis, No. 3 Venus Williams and No. 6
Serena Williams -- in the other half. They play second-round matches
Thursday.
A dangerous floater in Davenport's half is Henin. The teen-ager
won titles in Australia earlier this month at the Gold Coast and at
Canberra, beating three seeded players in the latter event.
"When I arrived in Australia I was confident," said Henin, who
reached the fourth round at the U.S. Open last year. "I'm not afraid
to lose now. I'm not so nervous, and I can do my best on the
court."
Henin comes to the net well for such a young player and also has
the powerful groundstrokes characteristic of her generation.
"Right now she's full of confidence and all the luck is running
her way," Pitkowski said. "She's very solid, bangs it hard from
both sides and has a backhand like the guys."
But the young Belgian's heavy early-season schedule could soon
take a toll. She played only 31 matches all of last year and is
already almost halfway to that total.
"I'm confident, but I'm also a little bit tired," Henin said.
"I want to win all my matches, but it's difficult. Sometimes I
lose a little concentration because mentally I'm a little tired."
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AUDIO/VIDEO
 A frustrated Lindsay Davenport holds off Greta Arn in the second round.
avi: 1620 k
RealVideo: 56.6 | ISDN | T1
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