Golovin ousts Venus at Family Circle Cup
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-04-15 10:23

Defending champion Venus Williams blamed exhaustion for her upset loss Thursday to Tatiana Golovin at the Family Circle Cup.

Venus Williams reacts during her 7-5, 6-4 loss to 17-year-old Tatiana Golovin, of France, at the Family Circle Cup tennis tournament in Charleston, S.C., Thursday April 14, 2005. [AP]

"I just kept making error after error. It was a comedy of errors," said the fourth-seeded Williams, who played Wednesday night and then had to play again at 1 p.m. "It was windy out there and I just had a quick turnaround from the last match and my feet never moved."

Williams, ranked No. 8 in the world, said she had a mental letdown during the match because of all the tennis she has played in the past four weeks.

"I just felt pretty dead," Williams said, quickly adding with a laugh: "But I'm alive."

It was the first career meeting between Williams and Golovin.

"I have played against a few top-10 players already and, you know, I always kept losing in three sets," Golovin said. "I think I was just more really ready to beat a top-10 player."

Golovin advanced to play seventh-seeded Nadia Petrova of Russia in Friday's quarterfinals. Petrova was a 6-3, 6-3 winner over Jelena Kostanic of Croatia.

Justine Henin-Hardenne, who spent much of last season ranked No. 1, defeated Iveta Benesova 6-2, 6-3 and faces No. 1 seed and top-ranked Lindsay Davenport on Friday.

Davenport dispatched qualifier Viktoriya Kutuzova 6-3, 6-1 in Thursday's late match.

"I feel I'm playing pretty well. Clay is not my favorite. But I feel like I'm hitting the ball well," Davenport said. "I'm coming off a win at Amelia Island and I'll just keep trying to be aggressive and hopefully things will work out."

In the other bracket, Patty Schnyder, seeded eighth, was a 6-4, 6-0 winner over Klara Koukalova and will meet 15-year-old Nicole Vaidisova who defeated No. 14 seed Shinobu Asagoe 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2).

On the same side of the draw, Katarina Srebotnik, a 6-1, 4-6, 6-1 winner over Ai Sugiyama, meets No. 2 seed Elena Dementieva who defeated Nuria Llagostera Vines 6-0, 6-3.

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