Jennifer Capriati has overpowered top seed Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 in the French Open semi-final to reach her second Grand Slam final in a row. The Australian Open champion moved within one match of completing the first half of the Grand Slam of women's tennis, 13 years after Steffi Graf achieved the ultimate honour in the sport. She will face Belgian teenager Kim Clijsters who defeated compatriot Justine Henin earlier in the first semi.
"It was really difficult because she really wanted to win her first Roland Garros and I wanted to win mine too," said Capriati. It was Capriati's third straight win over Hingis, including the Australian Open final in January which she also won in straight sets to complete her long comeback from her troubled teenage years. Hingis has never won the French Open despite reaching twice reaching the final, and her dream of completing her career sweep of Grand Slam titles to add to her three Australian, one US and one Wimbledon titles will have to wait another year.
Capriati battled through a painful knee which required extensive court-side treatment after the fifth game of the first set when she was 4-1 up. Hingis won three games in a row to tie the score, but the American prevailed and took the set in 39 minutes.
The players exchanged service breaks early in the second set as the cool gusty conditions caused them both problems but Hingis missed her chance to pull ahead at 3-3, squandering three break points on the Capriati serve. Capriati broke serve to go 5-3 up in the next game and made no mistake in the clinching game.
Capriati, who became the youngest ever semi-finalist at Grand Slam events here in 1990 when she was just 14 years and two months, will start a strong favourite against Clijsters in Saturday's final.
Earlier, Kim Clijsters booked her place in the final with a tight struggle against compatriot Justine Henin. Clijsters, who will turn 18 tomorrow, defeated 19-year-old Henin, 2-6 7-5 6-3 in a tight and tense struggle which lasted one hour and 51 minutes to become the first Belgian ever to reach a Grand Slam final.
Henin battered Clijsters with a string of powerful backhands to leave her staring defeat in the face. However, the game began to turn around midway through the second set as Henin’s nerves crept in at the same time as the younger Belgian grew in confidence and Clijsters rescued the set. Her serve suddenly had more zip, forehand more authority and she broke the Henin serve in the sixth game of the third set to take control. Although 14th seed Henin battled throughout, Clijsters eventually held serve and smashed the final winner away to make history.
“It is great for Belgium,” said the 12th seed. “All Belgium is upside down at the moment, I think. I'm very happy. I knew Justine was getting tired in the second set but in the first she was just too good with so many winners. I just kept trying because I knew that in tennis anything can happen.
“I know I don't have much experience but I did play Steffi Graf on the Centre Court at Wimbledon and that helped me today,” said Clijsters.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
