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| Capriati barely survives Bovina |
May, 29th 2004
Roland Garros
Jennifer Capriati survived a bruising slugfest
and knocked out Russia’s Elena Bovina 6-2 3-6 6-4 on Saturday to move one
step closer to a highly anticipated match-up with her rival Serena Williams.
In a fast-paced third round contest against the tall and rangy Russian,
Capriati was able to gain control of the center of the court and move Bovina
around with her vaunted crosscourt game.
But in the second set, Bovina began to serve and return with much more gusto
and blew the 2001 champion off the court in rapid-fire rallies. Bovina
stunned Capriati by moving out to a 5-0 lead, but the American clawed her
way back into the contest by varying the pace and depth of her shots. Yet
Capriati handed Bovina the set by missing a sitter inside-out forehand.
Capriati regained her stride in the third set and broke Bovina to go ahead
3-1, but errors began to creep into her game and she double faulted to hand
Bovina the break back to 3-2.
The 21-year-old Bovina – who reached a career high ranking of No16 a year
ago – has struggled to find consistency this year, reaching only one quarter
final. While she has the power of a top 10 player, she is often inconsistent
at crunch time and her mental fragility showed when she committed two
backhand errors to give Capriati a break to 5-3.
However, with Capriati’s sporadic serve wavering, Bovina attacked and broke
right back with a forehand winner down the line.
But in the next game, Capriati showed the champion’s mettle that has brought
her to three Grand Slam titles, and crushed a hooking crosscourt forehand
winner to win the contest.
She'll face the winner of the Francesca Schiavone-Virginia Ruano-Pascual match.
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