PARIS -- No. 1 seed Martina Hingis will face Australian Open champion Jennifer Capriati in a French Open semifinal rematch of their Grand Slam final in Melbourne.
Capriati reached the semifinals of the
French Open for the first time in 11 years Tuesday by defeating Serena
Williams 6-2, 5-7, 6-2.
Capriati, seeded fourth, clinched the victory on her fourth
match point after a tense 14-point final game, which Williams ended
by sending her last forehand long.
Capriati punched her fists into the air with relief and joy
after her win and blew kisses to the stands.
"I'm happy that I got through," said Capriati, who last
reached the semifinals at Roland Garros in 1990 at 14. That was her
first semifinal at a Grand Slam. She did not win a Grand Slam title
until January, when she took the Australian Open.
The match looked one-sided after the first set, which Capriati
won easily with the help of several unforced errors by Williams.
She led 5-3 in the second set, and a game later was serving for
the match. She served a double fault at 5-4 and 30-15, and another
at 40-30, conceding her first match point.
Williams broke serve when Capriati sent a forehand long. She
held serve in the next and took a 6-5 advantage when Capriati
double-faulted twice in a row.
Williams, seeded sixth, took the second set, but made several
more unforced errors in the third.
In the final game, Williams blew two break points and lost the
match on her 65th unforced error.
Hingis moved a step closer to winning the one Grand Slam title
that has eluded her by defeating Italy's Francesca Schiavone 6-1,
6-4.
"I haven't been tested, but it's nice to go through a draw like
this," said Hingis, whose only seeded opponent was No. 17 Sandrine
Testud, whom she beat in the fourth round.
Hingis has won every other Grand Slam title at least once. She
was a runner-up twice at Roland Garros, most recently in 1999, when
she was three points away from beating Steffi Graf for the
championship.
Hingis, who faces Capriati on Thursday, last won a Grand Slam title at the 1999 Australian Open.
Schiavone is ranked 51st in the world and played in her first
Grand Slam quarterfinal.
Justine Henin advanced to her first Grand Slam semifinal by defeating unseeded Russian Lina
Krasnoroutskaya in straight sets. The 14th-seeded Henin took only 50 minutes to win 6-1, 6-2.
"I don't want to stop, having come so far," Henin said.
Henin, 19, had not moved past the fourth round in a Grand
Slam before this year's French Open, where she has five consecutive
straight-set victories.
Henin was close to shutting out Krasnoroutskaya in the second
set, but at 5-0 she lost the next two games. She quickly recovered
her composure and clinched the victory with a crosscourt forehand.
All of her matches so far have been against unseeded players.
She will face her first big test in the semis
against compatriot Kim Clijsters, who overcame
unseeded Hungarian Petra Mandula 6-1, 6-3 in only 55 minutes.
"Kim and I are close friends," Henin said. "Kim is a great
girl and at tournaments we are always together.
"It is good for a small country like Belgium to have two
players like us but a match is a match and if I have to play
against her I will do my best to win.
"When we are on court I have to beat everybody."
 Send this story to a friend | Most sent stories |
|
ALSO SEE
Shriver: Capriati headed toward second Grand Slam title
Kuerten kicks Kafelnikov out of French Open
Kirkpatrick: She can't stop herself
Capriati, Williams easily advance at French Open
Dokic slumps out to Hungarian qualifier
|
