Capriati beats Williams

Capriati beats Williams


May 15, 2004

AP - May 14, 6:11 pm EDT
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ROME (AP) -- Jennifer Capriati beat an error-prone Serena Williams 6-4, 6-4 Saturday to reach the Italian Open final for the first time.

Williams, in her first tournament after nearly a month off with a sore left knee, had won eight straight matches against Capriati.

On Sunday, the fifth-seeded Capriati will play No. 2 Amelie Mauresmo, a 6-2, 6-3 winner against Vera Zvonareva.

It will be Mauresmo's fourth final in five years at the clay-court tuneup for the French Open. She lost the other three.

``I'm very satisfied by my play today,'' Mauresmo said. ``I was in control from the beginning.''

She won her 11th career title at last week's German Open.

Capriati had never been past the semifinals in 10 previous appearances in Rome.

She broke Williams to go ahead 5-4 in the first set, then served it out. In the second set, Capriati claimed a 5-1 lead with help from mistakes by Williams.

After Williams held to make it 5-2, Capriati double-faulted, and Williams broke to 5-3. After Williams held, Capriati finally served it out, with Williams hitting a net cord on the second match point. The ball hung in the air for a split second and then came back down on Williams' side.

not to much of a suprise Serena did have alot of errors, good luck in the finals Jen!

Good luck tomorrow Jen!!!

Newsflash.....most players hit a lot of errors when they lose a match. I'm sure Jen was hitting only winners on Sunday when Mauresmo killed her, right? Wrong. I'm not too proud to say Jen was outplayed by Mauresmo, who was by all accounts playing great. Why can't some fans say the same about today? I've seen Serena hit TONS of errors and still win a match. The person on the other side of the net does have some kind of say in who wins and loses matches. It doesn't just all depend on Serena or whoever playing good or playing bad. Give credit where credit is due.

Fifth seed Jennifer Capriati has beaten top seed Serena Williams 64 64 in the semi-final of the Telecom Italia Masters. The American, number nine in the world, has reached her first final in Rome with a focused performance and has still to drop a set in this year`s tournament. She will play number two seed Amelie Mauresmo in the final on Sunday afternoon. Jennifer won the first set thanks to the only break, in the ninth game, after saving three break points in earlier games. In the second set Jennifer built up a 5-1 lead before Serena came back into the match. At 5-2 Jennifer doubled faulted a match point and was broken to 5-3. Things started looking ominous when Serena held for 5-4, but Jennifer held her nerve, saved two more break points and closed out the match. "I think Serena started playing well too late in the match," Jennifer said after her surprise victory. Tomorrow`s American finalist said she had been working hard on her movement around the court, and it showed. She looked fast and has hit deap, hard grounstrokes from her first match on Rome`s red clay.