Huber, Coetzer Set For Semifinals

Knuckles bleeding from a fall on court, Conchita Martinez tumbled out of the Australian Open today as Anke Huber reached a Grand Slam semifinals for the first time in three years.

Huber beat the No. 2 Martinez 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 to set up a semifinals match against Amanda Coetzer.

In a match interrupted 45 minutes by rain and completed under the closed retractable roof, the right-handed Martinez skinned her knuckles and jammed her right hand as she fell near the net while trailing 4-2 in the second set. She dabbed her hand on a towel, went back on court and was broken to 5-2.

Martinez didn’t ask a trainer to treat her until she was down 3-0 in the third set, and by that time the bandages and ice didn’t help. Huber was in control, attacking at the net and beating her from the baseline, as Martinez made 14 errors to Huber’s 2 in the final set.

The only other major semifinals the 21-year-old Huber has played was the French Open in 1993. In her last 10 majors, she never went beyond the fourth round.

“It was an advantage for me that we played indoors,” Huber said. Martinez agreed.

“I found that when they closed the roof (at 3-1 in the second set), everything was much faster,” Martinez said. “It was difficult to play my game. The court was a little bit sticky.”

Martina Hingis’ bid to become the youngest semifinalist in Australian Open history ended in a frustrating flurry of errors and racket-flinging.

Hingis, putting on a show of adolescent petulance when points and calls went against her, double-faulted to end a windblown match against Coetzer, 7-5, 4-6, 6-1.

At 15, Hingis is a talented but limited player, possessing solid groundstrokes but no big weapons to beat more experienced and steadier rivals like the No. 16 Coetzer, a 24-year-old South African.

Coetzer, a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Open two years ago, reached the semis of a Grand Slam event for the first time since turning pro in 1988. She had never gone beyond the third round in the Australian in three previous appearances.

“It’s a critical time for me,” Coetzer said. “A couple of years ago I felt I was not really going anywhere. The way I was play I wasn’t really enjoying it.”