In a battle of former champions Jennifer Capriati, the seventh seed, beat United States rival Serena Williams, the second seed, to advance to the semifinals of the French Open in Paris on Tuesday.
On the Philippe-Chatrier centre court, 2001 champion Capriati held off a fightback by the 2002 titleholder to win through 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 after one hour and 40 minutes in a match that was twice interrupted by rain.
And it was a gloomy day for the Williams sisters as half an hour later older sister Venus, the fourth seed, fell 6-3, 6-4 to Russian sixth seed Anastasia Myskina who advances to meet Capriati.
Capriati took the match on her second match point after her first, which she had thought was good, was controversially called long, forcing the point to be replayed at 40-30.
”It’s about time, to say the least,” said Capriati, who scored her second win in a row over Williams whom she beat for the first time in three years in Rome three weeks ago. The pair now stand 9-6 in favour of Williams.
”Finally I won one of these matches. I’ve let it slip away so many times. I don’t know what happened with the call — I was just happy that he said to replay the point.”
Williams, who only recently returned to the tour after an eight-month knee injury lay-off, gave an error-strewn performance during which she committed 45 unforced errors and lost her serve five times.
”I had a bad day with the serve,” said Williams. ”I don’t think I got any first serves in today, so it’s hard to win when you can’t get a first serve in — or a ball. She definitely comes with a different strategy every time I play her so she’s definitely gotten better.”
Williams was out of sorts in the first set with a double fault handing Capriati a break point in the third game, which she converted for 2-1 when her opponent hit wide.
Williams held and broke back for 3-3, but again lost her serve to trail 4-3 when rain sent the players scurrying for cover.
Back on court after a 10-minute break Capriati wrapped up the set in 35 minutes by breaking Williams’s serve to love.
Williams fought back in the second set taking a 4-0 lead with a double break, before Capriati reduced the deficit to 4-1, with the tie 5-1 in Williams’s favour when rain halted proceedings again.
After a 45-minute break Capriati returned to hold serve but Williams served for the set to love 6-2 with her opponent failing to hit a single winner in the set which last 29min.
In the third set Williams seemed troubled by a thigh problem, and the battling Capriati grabbed a break in the fourth game for a 3-1 lead when Williams hit long.
Williams fought back to 3-3 but Capriati took control again in the eighth game and held firm to reach the semis for the fourth time in 11 outings.
”Maybe it wasn’t the best quality match. We were both not playing our best. But I’m happy to get through,” said Capriati, who reached the last four in Paris on her debut as a 14-year-old in 1990.
”I don’t know what happened in the second set. I got a bit distracted with the rain,” added Capriati of the rain disruptions that lasted nearly an hour. — Sapa-AFP