July, 1st 2003
Wimbledon
Displaying all
the qualities which make a champion, including the ability to fight her way
through an early loss of form and confidence, Serena Williams outlasted
Jennifer Capriati 2-6, 6-2, 6-3 to reach the semi-finals of the women's
singles.
This match tested the titleholder and number one seed for the first time in
The Championships. She dropped a set, suffered the unusual experience of
being outhit in some of the rallies and handed many points to her
fellow-American with unforced errors. But, true to her status, she tightened
her game, took the battle to the opposition and emerged the deserved winner
of a marvelous contest in one hour 39 minutes.
Matches between Serena and the eighth-seeded Capriati have
fallen into a pattern of late. Their career head-to-head now stands at 9-4
in favour of Serena and she has won their last eight matches, the last four
of them, including today, after dropping the first set.
Capriati knows well enough that the younger Williams sister can be
vulnerable in the early stages of the match if her game is put under
pressure, and she proceeded to do that to good effect, breaking serve as
early as the third game when a Serena forehand, for perhaps the first but
certainly not the last time, plopped weakly into the net.
Capriati, whose best Wimbledons were in 1991 and 2001 when she reached the
semi-final, kept her opponent at arm's length with some fine lobs to prevent
her charging the net. Perhaps this all helped to undermine the Williams
confidence but she dropped serve again to fall 5-2 behind when Capriati was
gifted a fourth break point on one of those Williams forehand errors, which
was immediately followed by a carbon copy mistake.
This was untidy
tennis by Serena, reminiscent of the sort of stuff which cost her the French
Open title when she was beaten in the semi-finals by Justine Henin-Hardenne,
and Capriati took the first set after 27 minutes. She reached set point with
a wonderful wrong-footing forehand and saw Serena drive a backhand out of
court. So Capriati's strategy of coming straight from the clay courts of
Paris to acclimatise on grass in London looked to be paying dividends.
This seemed even more apparent as Serena still struggled to assemble her
armoury in the second set, though she was beginning to land an ace or two in
court by now. Her timing was still verging on the embarrassing, however.
Having perpetrated 15 unforced errors in the first set, she threw in another
three in succession as Capriati held serve with ease.
Serena had played no more than 12 tournaments in the past year and critics
have not been slow to point out that this lack of match sharpness can be
dangerous. But, her game having been a mixture of wonder and woe, the
champion started her counter-attack as early as the fourth game of the
second set, with Capriati needing to fend off a break point after an
incredible 28-stroke rally of shots mainly delivered at full pelt.
Though she was not to realise it, that holding of her service was the moment
the tide turned against her, though not before she had held a break point in
Serena's next service game when the titleholder put a violent smash out of
court. But Serena countered with her fourth ace, won the next point too with
a 114mph serve and held as Capriati lobbed out.
From there the foot was flat down on the floor as Serena roared away. She
broke in the next game with a glorious backhand down the line, held with
easy and then broke the Capriati serve again to level the match with 62
minutes gone.
By the time Capriati was able to halt the runaway train, she had lost seven
games in succession and was critically 3-0 down in the deciding set. She
could not have fought harder, however. She held three break points in the
opening game of the third set and Serena needed to uncork two more aces to
stay in front. But when she took that 3-0 lead with her seventh ace of the
match the resolve had seeped from Capriati's game and she seemed resigned,
yet again, to her fate.
The quality of the tennis remained high and entertaining, including one
31-shot rally, and Capriati even worked herself a couple of break points
when Serena served for the match at 5-3. But both of them got away, the
first on a Capriati error and the second on a cross-court backhand of sheer
genius from Serena.
In the end, Serena needed only one match point as a fast-tiring Capriati,
presented with an open court, drove a forehand into the net.
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