May, 27th 2004
Roland Garros
Jennifer Capriati and the US women continue to
carry the American flag at Roland Garros as the 2001 champion out-slugged
Kveta Peschke 7-5 6-3 to gain the third round on Thursday.
After Andy Roddick and Vince Spadea fell on Wednesday, for the first time in
the Open era, no American man has made it to the third round. But as of
Wednesday morning, six US women remained in the draw: Capriati, the Williams
sisters, Lindsay Davenport, Meghann Shaughnessy and Marissa Irvin. Capriati
believes the US women are up to the challenge.
"It's good for the women. We know they will
be showing us a lot more, of course. It's a different game out there. Most
of the American guys are not your typical claycourter. The women's is a more
all round game. I guess it will be up to us to keep America alive here."
Coming back form a break down in the first set again the hard-hitting Czech,
the 28-year-old Capriati used a consistent, hard first serve and deep,
varied groundstrokes to put down a challenge from the veteran.
"I did what I had to do to win the match," said Capriati, who had to
come back from a break down in the third set in her first round battle with
Yulia Beygelzimer. "It took me a little while to get going and wake up.
She didn't give me a lot of rhythm and it was tough to get into rhythm the
whole time. But I served well."
The powerful inside-the-baseliner has competed well here since winning the
title in 2001, but has been unable to come up with big shots at crunch time.
Two years, ago she was taken down by eventual champion Serena Williams in a
three-set classic and last year was out-volleyed by Nadia Petrova.
During the first week of this tournament, Capriati knows she has to
fine-tune her game so if she reaches the quarters, and has to face the likes
of Serena, she'll have an armful of options.
"I'm working on the whole mindset of being aggressive," Capriati said.
"I can't expect to turn it on later in the week. I think you have to
build up to it. This is the time to get more confident and practice the
things in matches for when you might really need them later."
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