Mauresmo ousts top-seeded Henin

The French men have a 2-1 lead over Switzerland in Davis Cup.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AMELIA ISLAND, Fla. -- Amelie Mauresmo dealt No. 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne just her second loss of the year, erasing a match point and beating the Belgian 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-3 in the semifinals of the Bausch & amp; Lomb Championships.
The 2-hour, 45-minute thriller put Mauresmo into the championship match against Lindsay Davenport, who came back from a set and break down to eliminate seventh-seeded Nadia Petrova 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.
Petrova upset Serena Williams in the quarterfinals.
Davenport won this tournament in 1997 and lost in last year's final. Mauresmo won the clay-court title in 2001.
And Mauresmo clearly has recovered from the back injury that forced her to the sideline for the past 10 weeks. Playing in her first tournament since withdrawing from the Australian Open quarterfinals in January, Mauresmo changed speeds well Saturday.
"I had to mix things up," the Frenchwoman said. "I was very happy with the way I served. That's a part of my game I'm really pleased with right now."
Match-point collapse
With Henin-Hardenne up a set and leading 5-4 in the second, she held a match point. But she sent an easy forehand return into the net, watched one of Mauresmo's two aces of the match go past her, and then committed one of her 52 unforced errors.
So Mauresmo held to 5-5, then broke and held again to even the match at a set apiece.
"You need a couple of matches to get use to the surface," Henin-Hardenne said. "When I was aggressive, things were OK, but when I was too far from my baseline, it was very hard for me to stay aggressive."
She's now 25-2 in 2004, including four titles -- one at the Australian Open.
Davenport was down 4-2 in the second set when she began a run of seven straight games. That gave her that set and a 3-0 lead in the third.
"When the second set was under my belt, I just felt a load of pressure off," Davenport said. "I played with a little more confidence. Early in that set, she gave me a few errors, gave me a break early. I felt like I could go for my first serves a little bit more. I felt like they were a little more penetrating in the third set than the first."
Grand Prix SAR
CASABLANCA, Morocco -- Top-seeded Emilie Loit of France beat defending champion Rita Grande of Italy 7-6 (1), 6-3 Saturday in the semifinals of the Grand Prix SAR.
Loit will face fourth-seeded Ludmila Cervanova of Slovakia in the final. Cervanova defeated Klara Koukalova of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-4 in the other semifinal.
Davis Cup -- France
LAUSANNE, Switzerland -- Nicolas Escude and Michael Llodra came back from a set down to beat Roger Federer and Yves Allegro in doubles, putting France ahead of Switzerland 2-1 in a Davis Cup quarterfinal.
The French won 6-7 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (5), 6-3 and need to win just one of today's two singles matches to clinch the best-of-five series. The winner will face Spain or the Netherlands in the semifinals in September.
Federer, ranked No. 1 and the reigning Wimbledon and Australian Open champion, will try to keep Switzerland in it by beating Arnaud Clement in today's opener.
Escude is slated to face Ivo Heuberger in the final match.
France has won the Davis Cup nine times; Switzerland never has.