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| Capriati wins dour match |
August, 21st 2003
NEW HAVEN - Pilot Pen Tennis
Jennifer Capriati ended the 12-match winning streak of Israeli Anna
Pistolesi to reach the semi-finals of the New Haven event with a 6-2 5-7 6-1
victory on Thursday. The third seeded American took almost two hours for her
victory and was stretched by an opponent who has recently won titles in
Poland and Finland.
After dominating the opening exchanges, breaking serve twice to love and
dropping just four points in the first four games, Capriati increasingly
found herself pulled into long and draining baseline rallies.
Having taken two hours 11-minutes to beat Elena Bovina on Wednesday night,
the last thing Capriati wanted was a long match in the midday heat --
especially so close to next week's U.S. Open.
But Pistolesi prevented Capriati from attacking with big shots from the
baseline and made the American fight through 20 and 30 stroke rallies.
After dropping the first set Pistolesi had two chances to take the second
and level the match, blowing the first by hitting three consecutive
double-faults to drop her serve after breaking to lead 5-3.
But she made no mistake on her second opportunity, breaking again for the
set by forcing a backhand error.
In the final set, Capriati proved her fitness by breaking to lead 1-0,
getting the better of a succession of long rallies to hold for 2-0, and then
hitting a crosscourt winner to break again for 3-0 against her tiring opponent.
"She fights for every ball, just
tries for everything," Capriati said.
"You underestimate her because the ball is not coming that hard. She's
putting a lot of spin. It's hard, because you want to just go for every shot
and try to put the ball away."
Playing someone who does not attack, especially in hot and humid conditions,
was a frustrating experience for Capriati.
"It's a real test of your patience, your will to win out there," she said.
"It could be easy to sort of give every shot and go for it, whether it
goes in or out. But that's why she wins a lot of matches. I think that's why
she's up there and where she is, because she just breaks a lot of players
down."
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