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High-stakes semifinal Capriati, Hingis clash again with plenty on the line
PARIS (AP) -- The last time Jennifer Capriati walked onto the court for a French Open semifinal, she made tennis history. The year was 1990. Capriati was 14 years old, the youngest player ever to reach a Grand Slam semi. "I just remember that it came very easy back then," said Capriati, now 25. "It's not that I didn't work for it back then, but I really had to work for it this time." Eleven years later, the competition is fierce. The fourth-seeded Capriati faces top-seeded Martina Hingis in Thursday's semifinal, and both players have high emotional stakes. Capriati lost that 1990 semifinal match to Monica Seles and for the next decade was unable to advance past the quarterfinals in Paris. After her well-documented brush with drugs and a break from tennis, Capriati has come back a champion. In January, she won the Australian Open, beating Hingis in the final, and has mounted her strongest bid at Roland Garros since her adolescence. "Now she knows what to do," said her father and coach, Stefano. "She has experience. She is a stronger player now." Hingis, like Capriati, has never won at Roland Garros. But the Swiss player has tasted defeat several times: She has been a semifinalist or finalist in Paris every year since 1997. The French Open remains the only Grand Slam title that Hingis has never won. The world's top-ranked player reached her first French Open final in 1997 when only 16, and is looking to avenge her emotional 1999 loss to Steffi Graf. She was three points from victory when Graf came back to clinch the title, and Hingis stormed off the court in tears. Going into her fifth French Open semifinal, Hingis says she's never been in better shape. "I never felt this good in the previous years because I always was a little bit tired toward the end of the tournament," Hingis said. Hingis skipped doubles this year to devote her focus and energy to singles. She rejoined her mother and coach, Melanie Molitor, after severing their professional relationship a few months earlier. And she had the luck of an effortless draw through to the semis. Hingis won in straight sets against Colombia's Catalina Castano, and Rachel McQuillan of Australia. She dropped one set to her only seeded opponent, Sandrine Testud, and sped through the quarters against Italy's Francesca Schiavone. "You can say I haven't really been tested," Hingis said. "But it's nice to go through a draw like this." Capriati eliminated No. 6 Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and already has beaten Hingis twice this year, though the Swiss player won their five previous matches. Whoever wins Thursday is a favorite for the title. The first semifinal pits two Belgian teen-agers, neither of whom had made it to a Grand Slam quarterfinal until now. Both Justine Henin, 19, and Kim Clijsters, 17, are considered rising young players -- but either would be a long shot for the final. No. 14 Henin leads No. 12 Clijsters 2-1 in head-to-head play, though the two have never played each other at a Grand Slam tournament. Their showing in Paris is a testament to Belgium's developmental tennis programs. The tiny country had never before advanced a female player -- let alone two -- to a Grand Slam semifinal. "I've never been to a semifinal, but at the moment it feels like it's just another match for me," said Clijsters, a close friend of Henin's off the court. Henin said she had a premonition about her tennis destiny in 1992 as a young spectator at Roland Garros. "I was sitting there with my mom, I told her, `You see, mom, one day you'll see me playing on this center court,'" Henin said.
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