| |
Women follow form at French Open Seles, Graf, Davenport advance easily to round of 16
Posted: Saturday May 29, 1999 02:57 PM
PARIS (AP) -- The Jennifer Capriati comeback is still on track. Slugging accurate winners like she did when she was a rising star, Capriati rolled to a 6-2, 4-0 lead over Italy's Silvia Farina, who wore a bandage on her thigh, called it quits. But now it will get tough. Capriati faces No. 2-seeded Lindsay Davenport in the round of 16. As a bubbly 14-year-old in 1990, Capriati became the youngest player ever to make the top 10 in 1990. That same year at the French Open, she was the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist in history. But after tumbling out of the first round in the 1993 U.S. Open, her career was derailed by personal problems. She was caught shoplifting and five months later charged with marijuana possession. But she is playing better than she has in years, and just before Roland Garros she won her first title since 1993. Elsewhere in the women's draw, Monica Seles and Steffi Graf, who have eight French Open titles between them, both advanced to the round of 16 with straight-set victories and were headed for a possible semifinal meeting. For the players to meet in the semis, Graf would first have to get by Davenport -- who also won Saturday. Seles, who reached the finals last year only three weeks after her father's death but lost to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, has an easier path to the semis, with only the 16th-seeded Julie Halard Decugis possibly in the way. Seles defeated Maria Antonio Sanchez-Lorenzo of Spain, 6-1, 6-4, closing out the match with an overhead. Graf, seeded sixth here, beat Asa Carlsson of Sweden by exactly the same score, winning the last game at love. Graf next faces Anna Kournikova, who looked in top form Saturday in a 6-1, 3-6, 6-0 victory over 11th-seeded Patty Schnyder. Later, Schnyder said she had played badly because of her well-known dislike for Kournikova. Davenport, who was stopped last year in the semifinals by Sanchez-Vicario, beat Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3. Conchita Martinez of Spain also advanced over Anna Smashnova of Israel, 6-2, 7-5.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
Copyright © 1999 CNN/SI. A Time Warner Company. Terms under which this service is provided to you.
| |||||||||||||||||||||
