Capriati will meet Clijsters in final

STANFORD, Calif. (AP) -- Jennifer Capriati reached her first final in four months -- she just won't allow herself to make a big deal of it.

"I'm not going to think that this is a final and my big chance and put pressure on myself," she said, laughing. "And not that `If I can't win this I can't win anything else the rest of my career."'

Capriati, who hasn't won a title in 18 months, advanced to her second tour final of the season Saturday, defeating gutsy qualifier Maria Vento-Kabchi 6-4, 6-4 in the first semifinal at the Bank of the West Classic.

The No. 3-seeded Capriati will face second-seeded Kim Clijsters in Sunday's final. Clijsters defeated unseeded Francesca Schiavone 6-3, 6-2 in the late semifinal.

Capriati won despite six double faults and 30 unforced errors on an 84-degree Bay area day. She served only one ace and hit 61 percent of her first serves.

"I didn't play my best tennis but good enough to win," Capriati said. "Hopefully for tomorrow I got out my mistakes. If I play like I did today, Kim's just too good of a player and she would take advantage of that."

Capriati is 3-1 against Clijsters, with all but one of those meetings going three sets.

"We had a very epic battle once before," Capriati said. "We always kind of bring the best out of each other."

Clijsters won the final eight points of the first set following an amazing rally in which Schiavone chased down several short balls and eventually hit a perfect lob that fell just inside the baseline.

The 20-year-old Clijsters won this tournament in 2001. Twice in the second set when Schiavone was serving Clijsters came back from 40-0 to break. Schiavone called for the trainer when she was trailing 3-0 in the second.

The trainer rubbed Schiavone's quads and treated her for dehydration and cramping. It caused about a 10-minute delay in the 1 hour, 9 minute match.

Capriati used a nice array of deep groundstrokes to move Vento-Kabchi all over the court, mixing in an occasional drop shot and coming to the net at every chance.

"I was on the defensive most of the time," Vento-Kabchi said. "She was coming with big shots and I was missing a lot. There were some points I thought I played well and the ball came back even better. It's not frustrating, but you see the level she's on. I just need to get used to it."

In her only other title match this year, the 27-year-old Capriati lost in three sets to Serena Williams at Miami.

Capriati had ice on both her back and right shoulder as a precaution. She played a three-setter Friday night and had to come back for an afternoon match Saturday.

She broke Vento-Kabchi's serve three times in the first set -- including going to deuce six times in the fourth game of the match -- and twice more in the second to win in 1 hour, 15 minutes.

Capriati and Clijsters got through the tournament field that was diminished when No. 1 Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Monica Seles and Anna Kournikova withdraw with injuries.

Vento-Kabchi, 29, has never defeated Capriati in four career meetings. Vento-Kabchi, ranked 132nd in the world, beat No. 8 Nadia Petrova and fifth-seeded Jelena Dokic, ranked 12th in the world to reach the semifinal without dropping a set.

"It was a long time since I'd played top players, so it was a different speed of the ball and a lot faster," Vento-Kabchi said. "I wasn't so nervous but it's definitely different because I hadn't played in front of a big crowd in quite a while. You try not to think about it."

By reaching the Bank of the West semifinal, she is expected to break into the world's top-100 for the first time since Nov. 12, 2000.

Clijsters did not have a double fault and had 19 unforced errors to Schiavone's 28.

 

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