Davenport downs Williams

MELBOURNE, Jan 26: Venus Williams saw her game, and her hair beads, fall apart on Tuesday as she lost 6-4, 6-0 to world number one Lindsay Davenport in the Australian Open quarterfinals.

The powerful American teenager stormed off court without shaking the umpire's hand after being docked a crucial point early in the second set because some of the beads fell on to court.

"This has never happened to me before," Williams screamed at umpire Denis Overberg. "This is out of control."

Davenport's win set up a semifinal against unsung Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, who defeated Belgium 11th seed Dominique Van Roost 6-3, 7-6.

Williams caused the most noise by far. The 18-year-old fifth seed had been unable to dent Davenport's powerful all-round game and was serving at 2-0 down in the second set when some of her renowned multi-coloured beads scattered.

The umpire warned her that if it happened again she would lose the point - just as players face a deduction if their hats fall off. At break point in the same game, a handful of beads did rattle on to court as she served and Davenport was handed the game.

"I didn't think it was a very fair call," complained Williams, who has worm beads in her hair for six years.

"It's not an incident that occurs frequently and I've never had any such treatment from any other umpire at any other match."

But Williams conceded: "I didn't lose that match because my beads fell off, I lost it because I didn't play very well."

US Open champion Davenport showed little sympathy for Williams and said the rattling beads had annoyed her.

"They are the rules we live by," she said. "If I wore a hat and the same thing happened to me, I'd lose the point."

Davenport has lot to Mauresmo on a clay-court encounter in France and said she was looking forward to meeting the muscular 19-year-old Frenchwoman.

Van Roost became Mauresmo's second seeded victim of the tournament after the 19-year-old eliminated eighth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the second round.

This time the powerfully-built Mauresmo muscled the Belgian into an uncharacteristically high 44 unforced errors.

"I hit unforced errors because she made me hit unforced efforts," a stunned Van Roost told reporters.

"I don't know how fast she was serving, but it's definitely very fast and very powerful."