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No competition Seles continues her strong play at Pilot Pen
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) -- Monica Seles methodically marched into the semifinals of a rain-plagued Pilot Pen with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over Dominique Van Roost on Wednesday. Only one other match -- Patty Schnyder's 1-6, 7-5, 6-3 win over Elena Dementieva -- was completed Wednesday before rain suspended play for the day. Enjoying one of the best starts of her career, Seles won three tournaments in the first half of the year and rose in the rankings from No. 14 to No. 3 from February to April. She's the sixth seed going into next week's U.S. Open and is using the hardcourts of New Haven to sharpen her game. Seles is making her fifth appearance at the Pilot Pen and although she has won it only once, she's never been worse than a quarterfinalist. She has reached the quarterfinals in all 12 tournaments she has played this year. "I think I really worked hard on my consistency. I think that has been lacking the last few years," she said. Seles beat the sixth-seeded Van Roost in under an hour, taking advantage of the Belgian's late-match swoon. Tied at 1 in the second set, Van Roost led 40-30 in her service game. The next point triggered her downfall, as she lost 16 straight points. She had Seles out of position, but missed a kill shot with a wide-open court. An unforced error pulled them to deuce, and Van Roost then double-faulted the game away. She didn't win her next point until the sixth game, but by then Seles was up 5-1. After Van Roost held, Seles served out the match, sealing it with a 105 mph service winner. Seles, seeded second in New Haven, won their only previous meeting, a straight set victory in Sydney in 1996. "She's a streaky player because she goes for it," Seles said. "She goes for so much, so she only hits amazing shots, amazing angles or she's going to miss it." Schnyder will face defending champion Venus Wiliams in the quarterfinals. Schnyder said Dementieva started so fast in the first set that she could not get comfortable on the court. She fought back in the second set and capitalized on Dementieva's errors in the third set to win. "I was moving better and I could dominate the rally," Schnyder said. The rain also spoiled the return of 43-year-old Martina Navratilova. The Hall of Famer was scheduled to make her first U.S. tournament appearance since coming out of retirement this spring. She and 19-year-old Katarina Srebotnik will play the fourth-seeded team of Cara Black and Elena Likhovtseva on Thursday.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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