Capriati, Williams Sisters Advance

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Posted 3:44PM on Tuesday, June 4, 2002

PARIS (AP) - Defending champion Jennifer Capriati recovered from a second-set lapse Tuesday and rolled past Jelena Dokic to earn a spot in the French Open semifinals. With ``Friends'' star Matthew Perry pulling for her from the stands, Capriati took advantage of 14 double faults by Dokic for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 victory that sets up a showdown against Serena Williams. Williams overpowered Mary Pierce 6-1, 6-1, right after Venus Williams beat Monica Seles 6-4, 6-3, earning each sister her first trip to the French Open semifinals. Venus Williams next faces unseeded Clarisa Fernandez, who defeated fellow Argentine Paola Suarez 2-6, 7-6 (5), 6-1 in Tuesday's first quarterfinal. Top-seeded Capriati has lost all three of her matches against Serena Williams this year - in finals at Scottsdale and Miami and in the semifinals at Rome last month on clay. After losing her serve to drop the second set, Capriati needed just 19 minutes to win the third, capturing the final five games. Dokic had four of her double faults in the last set, including on match point. French Open 2002 ``In the second set I was starting to struggle. I had to concentrate and focus in the third. I had to watch the ball more than usual because it was very dark,'' Capriati said of the late-ending match. Venus Williams, a two-time Wimbledon and U.S. Open winner, showed that her fast-paced game can work on the clay, as well. Her quickest serve during the match was clocked at 118 mph. ``I can play on anything. I do know how to slide and I enjoy stepping into the ball,'' she said. ``I don't think (Seles) played her best.'' No. 6-seeded Seles, a three-time French Open champion, made 36 unforced errors against Venus in the 1-hour, 13-minute match that was interrupted 48 minutes by rain in the first set. ``The ball just comes so fast you have to be on it every moment,'' Seles said. ``And when she serves and when she is going for it, obviously it's very fast. And she didn't make as many errors.'' Venus, who lost to Seles for the first time in seven previous meetings in the Australian Open quarterfinals, led 3-1 when the rain came. Once play resumed, Seles broke for 3-4 and held to even the match. But Venus, with the aid of Seles' double fault, broke to win the first set. She hit an ace for a 3-2 lead in the second and broke again as Seles double faulted. Serena simply overwhelmed Pierce, the 2000 French Open champion, giving up just two points over her final five service games. Fernandez became the first unseeded semifinalist at the French Open since Capriati in 1990. The 5-foot-11 left-hander upset No. 4 Kim Clijsters in the third round and No. 13 Elena Dementieva in the fourth. Suarez was hurt by eight double faults and lost her serve all four times in the final set. Their friendship was evident when Fernandez's ace to win a second-set tiebreaker was called out but Suarez conceded it was good and walked off the court. In the first men's quarterfinal Tuesday, No. 20 Albert Costa outlasted No. 15 Guillermo Canas 7-5, 3-6, 6-7 (3), 6-4, 6-0. Also meeting were No. 22 Andrei Pavel and No. 18 Alex Corretja, a finalist last year and in 1998.