Martina Hingis took a step nearer lifting that elusive French Open with an easy victory over Francesca Schiavone to coast into the semi-finals. It took the world number one only 68 minutes to finish an impressive 6-1 6-4 victory. The 20-year-old Italian was playing in the third Grand Slam of her career, while the French Open is the only Grand Slam tournament to elude Hingis, who swept aside the Italian with precision ground strokes on either wing. Although the second set was much harder fought, Hingis always appeared in control, and eventually won with a sliced backhand volley which Sciavone could only direct into the net.
"I'm very happy to get through in straight sets," said Hingis. "I played around a bit in the second set and I was almost too confident out there. But I am glad I feel like that. In the next match, though, I will have to give it everything." Hingis will now meet Jennifer Capriati, who continued her remarkable fairytale comeback today when she blasted her way into the semi-finals of the French Open after a dramatic all-American showdown in Paris. The 25-year-old New Yorker beat Serena Williams 6-2 5-7 6-2 in the quarter-final to earn a meeting with the world number one, which many will see as the real final.
But Capriati almost contrived to throw it all away, double faulting on match point when leading 5-4 in the second set and compounding the mistake with two more double faults in her next service game to allow Williams to square the match. In the end she retrieved her composure somehow to regroup for the third set and take the match after a final game in which she needed another three match points. Earlier, Belgium's 19-year-old Justine Henin brushed aside 17-year-old Russian Lina Krasnoroutskaya 6-1 6-2 in a mere 50 minutes.
Filed by Pat Nugent
