It was only 11 days ago that she turned 18, but people have been talking about (and photographing) her since she was nine, and the tightening of the age eligibility rules in 1995 has made the wait seem long.”This is my best surface,” she says of grass, and her record confirms this. She was a semi-finalist at 16 in her only main draw visit to Wimbledon and is now unbeaten in 12 matches at Eastbourne (albeit six in the under- 21 event and an injury- conceded semi-final last year).It is less easy is to see why this is her best surface. Her slice is not overwhelming, her volleys are good without being outstanding, and her ground- strokes can be as wayward as they are penetrating. “Grass suits my game, the points are fast,” she said after beating Dechy, offering no real explanation.For the second time this week Kournikova let a 2-0 lead slip after winning the first set. As the 20-year-old Dechy started moving better round the Centre Court, the Russian looked less impressive, and she twice came within two points of going to a final set. However, a series of conservative groundstrokes in the second set tie-break, allied with a failure to be put off by the occasional bad bounce, saw her home in 76 minutes.For a while it looked as if Kournikova would today be facing Elena Likhovtseva, who took the first set 6-0 against Tauziat, but when the 31-year-old Frenchwoman broke to lead 4-2 in the second set the tide swung her way, and she lost just one more game, winning the match 0-6, 6-2, 6-1.In today’s other semi-final, Amanda Coetzer will play Natasha Zvereva.

Coetzer, who seems to be making few concessions to the dictates of grass in playing very much from the baseline, beat her fellow South African Mariaan de Swardt 7-6, 6-3, while Zvereva, a semi-finalist at Wimbledon last year, crushed Monica Seles’s conqueror Anne Kremer 6-0, 6-1, the Luxembourger winning the penultimate game to avert a whitewash.. DAVID JAMES joined Aston Villa for pounds 1.8m from Liverpool yesterday. He will replace the Australian international goalkeeper Mark Bosnich, who has moved to Manchester United on a free transfer under the Bosman ruling

James, 28, has joined Villa on a four-year contract. He has lost his place in the England squad after some shaky performances at Anfield, but yesterday he said: “Now I’ve got an opportunity to fulfil what I want to do, and that is to get back into the England team.

I do not think the criticism at Liverpool was justified- but that’s football.”
John Gregory, the Villa manager, said: “I firmly believe we have got a bargain at the price.”Another international goalkeeper, Denmark’s Peter Schmeichel, is travelling to Portugal for talks with Sporting Lisbon. The former Manchester United No 1, who left Old Trafford at the end of last season, has been offered a two-year contract worth around pounds 1.5m in wages.Nottingham Forest have received a bid from Vitesse Arnhem for their Dutch striker Pierre van Hooijdonk – but they insist no deal has been done. Forest are looking for around pounds 4m for the player who effectively went on strike at the start of last season, but the Dutch club Vitesse have not yet matched that price.According to reports in Germany, Celtic have held transfer talks with the 34-year-old German international defender Thomas Helmer, 34, who has been released by the Bundesliga champions.. DAVID DUVAL and Phil Mickelson, neither of whom enjoyed the ideal build-up to the 99th US Open, were the early leaders after opening rounds of 67, three under, on Pinehurst’s No 2 course. They were joined by Billy Mayfair, while Colin Montgomerie turned a poor day into a satisfactory one with birdies the last two holes in his 72 but Jose Maria Olazabal had a 75.

Mickelson, 29 on Wednesday, did not arrive in Pinehurst until Tuesday evening. His wife, Amy, is expecting their first baby, a girl they intend to call Amanda, in less than two weeks’ time but the pregnancy has not been easy. Mickelson only decided to leave Phoenix after the couple visited Amy’s doctor on Tuesday morning.
He has a bleeper on him at all times, in contravention of tournament guidelines for spectators, and will not hesitate to withdraw from the championship and return home if necessary. “There is a US Open every year but this is our first child,” Mickelson said. “I don’t want to miss that.”It would have been a shame to miss this US Open, too, because Mickelson’s brilliant short game gives him more chance here than other venues. After 13 tour victories he is still waiting for one of the major variety “This is an exciting time right now,” he said. “It was not difficult to focus on the course, every player has to separate things in their private life.