18 aprile 2003
AMELIA ISLAND - Bausch & Lomb Championships
Amelia Island, FL (Sports
Network) - Third-seeded American Jennifer Capriati rolled to a straight-set
victory in Friday's quarterfinal round of the $585,000 Bausch & Lomb Championships.
Capriati needed just 48 minutes to pummel countrywoman Lisa Raymond 6-2, 6-0
and earn a semifinal battle against second-seeded American Lindsay Davenport.
Raymond had 30 unforced errors, while Capriati nailed 22 winners and
converted 5-of-6 break points.
The 27-year-old Capriati, a winner of three grand slam titles, hasn't won a
tournament since capturing the Australian Open in 2002.
Top seeds Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium and former world No. 1 Davenport
were also straight-set quarterfinal winners Friday.
Henin-Hardenne opened the Day-5 action with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over two-time
Bausch & Lomb champion Monica Seles, while the 1997 titlist Davenport
followed with a 6-1, 6-1 dismantling of seventh-seeded Swiss Patty Schnyder.
Davenport's rout of the helpless Swiss featured 32 winners and a mere eight
unforced errors at Amelia Island Plantation.
The world No. 4 Henin-Hardenne knocked out Seles by utilizing eight aces, 36
winners and five service breaks in their 1-hour, 20-minute encounter, while
Davenport played nearly flawless tennis and recorded six breaks in her 45-
minute destruction of Schnyder.
The American Seles, this week's sixth seed, captured this green
clay event back-to-back in 1999 and 2000.
The red-hot Henin-Hardenne will battle 10th-seeded Russian Elena Dementieva in the semis.
Henin-Hardenne, last year's Amelia Island runner-up to Venus Williams, is
fresh off her title in Charleston last week when she stunned world No. 1
Serena Williams in straight sets in that clay-court final.
Dementieva crushed fourth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova 6-0, 6-1 in a brisk 46-
minute encounter, as the Russian broke the Slovakian's serve all six times
she faced it, while the struggling Hantuchova's only game win came via her
lone service break.
The world No. 9 Hantuchova is a pedestrian 4-4 in her last eight matches and
has failed to reach a semifinal since an event in Antwerp two months ago,
which also marks her lone semi of the season.
The world No. 21 Dementieva will appear in her second semifinal of the year,
having reached one in Paris in February only to be double-bageled by French
star Amelie Mauresmo 6-0, 6-0.
The new Bausch & Lomb titlist will pocket $93,000.
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