10 settembre 2004
US Open
Jennifer Capriati and Elena Dementieva should have skipped right to the third set.
After trading lopsided first and second sets Friday, Capriati and Dementieva
staged one of the most remarkable third sets in Grand Slam semifinal history;
86 minutes stuffed with a 49-stroke volley, eight games with at least one
deuce, four breaks of serve each, and a tiebreak won by Dementieva, giving
her a 6-0, 2-6, 7-6 (5) win to clinch the first all-Russian women's final in
US Open history. She will play Saturday night against Svetlana Kuznetsova,
who defeated Lindsey Davenport.
Dementieva won the first nine points of the match, and 25 of 30 in the first
set. The set lasted 17 minutes, and Capriati looked stunned near the end of
it, rushing her serves, rushing to her side of the court between changeovers,
and rushing her groundstrokes.
"She could not play at all in the beginning," Dementieva said. "It was so easy."
But the American entered the match while serving in the second, winning a
service game at love to tie it, 1-1, and then breaking Dementieva to go up a
break at 3-2. She won the next three games, finishing the set in 32 minutes.
Nobody could have imagined what was about to ensue.
Just two points into the set, Dementieva appeared to take control of the
point, whacking a forehand to Capriati's backhand. But Capriati hit it back
just as hard. The form repeated itself several times, with Capriati
squeaking her way back into control, and then teeter-tottering the advantage
back to Dementieva. The crowd would scream at shots that appeared to be
winners, only to gasp when they were kept in play. On swat No. 48, Capriati
reached with her forehand and hit it up in the air, with Dementieva standing
at the net. The Russian hit an overhead but hit it long, touching off a
standing ovation from the crowd. Capriati threw her racket down in exhausted
exuberance and pumped both fists in the air, and both players slid their
hands onto their knees to gain their breath.
It was not the match's only long volley, but it was perhaps the most
explanatory piece of foreshadowing of the tournament so far. The first four
games of the set featured four breaks of serve, with three of the games
going to deuce. Two of those games went four deuces before they were won.
Dementieva, as usual, was weak on her serves, sometimes shelling them out at
just 57 mph. But she was so solid, consistent and varying on her returns,
that she and Capriati remained even.
Once Dementieva held her serve to go up 3-2, Capriati held back, to make it
3-3. Then they traded breaks again. After falling down 0-30 on her serve in
the ninth game, Dementieva rallied for three straight points to make it
40-30, but double-faulted when she tried to mix in a 99-mph second serve.
After deuce, she fought off four Capriati break points.
Capriati fought off a game point, too, although it came on a horrendous,
53-mph Dementieva second serve that ended up as a fault. To win the game,
Dementieva outlasted Capriati in another dramatic volley, with the wind
blowing balls that headed out back in, and balls headed for the sides back
to the middle. Finally, No. 8 seed Capriati hit one long, and was serving to
stay in the match at 5-4.
The crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium laughed at the absurdity of what they were
watching, an instant classic that the networks will unquestionably replay
during next year's rain delays.
After Capriati quickly held, Dementieva was broken - yes there was a deuce
involved - and Capriati had the chance to serve out the match. But,
predictably in this most unpredictable of matches, Dementieva wrestled it to
15-40, with two chances to force a tiebreak. Capriati fended off the first
one, but then served up her only double fault of the match to force what
seemed to be an inevitable tiebreak.
Both seemed tired in the tiebreak, and the two actually held their serves
for the first four points. But Dementieva quickly went up 5-2, ripping a
forehand winner off an 84-mph Capriati first serve. Capriati was able to
fight off one match point, but at 6-5, Dementieva laced a backhand winner
into the corner, winning the two-hour, 15-minute match and setting up her
second all-Russian Grand Slam final this year.
"She played the conditions better than me," said a misty-eyed
Capriati in her post-match press conference. "She was smart with the wind."
When asked why she didn't take better advantage of Dementieva's weak serves,
she said, "That's really not my game.
"We both played a great match," Capriati said. "I didn't give it away.
She just played better on the court."
Dementieva, the No. 6 seed here, lost the French Open final to Anastasia
Myskina. She will try to win her first major on Saturday night.
One day after she was quoted as saying she would rather not play a Russian
in the final, Dementieva backed off on her words a bit.
"I feel happy to be in the finals," Dementieva said with a nervous laugh.
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