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Men's Tennis
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Women's Tennis
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| Saturday, August 18 |
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| Capriati thwarts Huber, reaches final Associated Press | |||
TORONTO -- Jennifer Capriati outlasted Anke Huber 6-3, 3-6,
6-3 Saturday to reach the final of the Rogers AT&T Cup.
The top-seeded Capriati, who won the Canadian WTA event a decade
ago at the age of 15, will face Serena Williams, a 7-5, 7-6 (5)
semifinal winner over Monica Seles, in Sunday's final.
"Today I was pleased with the way I was hitting them," said
Capriati, who assured herself of being seeded second at the U.S.
Open by reaching the semifinals here.
"Today I was really making them and going for it. I wish every
day I could play like that."
In the first and third sets, Capriati broke Huber to go up 5-3
and serve for the set each time.
"I knew that I had the chance to beat her and I just made some
unforced errors which were not necessary," said Huber, who plans
to retire after the Australian Open in January.
"She always played the fast game, she always had the shots, but
I think it's more powerful now."
Capriati played in the Canadian Open final in 1993, when she
lost in three sets to Steffi Graf.
Williams will be making her second straight Canadian Open final
appearance. A foot injury forced Williams to withdraw in the third
set of last year's final against Martina Hingis in Montreal.
Seles' streak of six straight finals at the Canadian event ended
against Williams.
Seles, a four-time champion, fought off three match points to
tie the second set at 5-all, but consecutive double faults in the
tiebreaker gave Williams a 4-3 lead.
Seles had difficulty handling Williams' powerful serve
throughout the match.
"She was serving so well," Seles said. "Not just her first
serves but her second serves too."
Williams' overpowering serve is the product of plenty of
practice.
"I've been practicing for a long time to get my serve to this
level because I have a big serve and I shouldn't lose serve,"
Williams said.
"Usually, there would have been a time I would have got nervous
and dropped my serve, but I knew I wasn't going to do that today."
Williams is tuning her game for the upcoming U.S. Open, and a
victory over Capriati would deliver a boost in confidence. Capriati
beat Williams in the quarterfinal round at Wimbledon.
"I'm in good health this time," Williams said. "A few times
I've played her, I wasn't in my best health so it should be a good
match.
"It's going to be good for me, it's going to be a good U.S.
Open warmup for me and I'm really excited going into this."
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ALSO SEE Saturday's results Seles wins two matches to reach semis in Toronto | |
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