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| July 4, 2002 | Thursday | Rabi-us-Sani 22,1423 |
Mauresmo upsets Capriati
LONDON, July 3: France’s Amelie Mauresmo sent third seed Jennifer Capriati tumbling out of the Wimbledon championships 6-3 6-2 in a rain-disrupted quarterfinal Wednesday.
After being delayed by over five hours by persistent rainfall, Mauresmo wasted little time as she charged towards her first semifinal at the All England Club.
Suffering from a sore shoulder, Capriati received treatment midway through the second set but by then the damage had already been done as Mauresmo was 4-1 up.
The ninth seeded Frenchwoman, who had won only one of her four previous meetings with the American, dictated play from the baseline and relentlessly attacked the faltering Capriati serve to clinch a place in the last four.
Mauresmo will face either second seed Serena Williams or Daniela Hantuchova for a place in the final.
Earlier rain halted play at after 17 minutes of action was seen on Centre Court in the quarterfinal clash between Jennifer Capriati and Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo.
On court one, second seed Serena Williams and Daniela Hantuchova barely managed to get into their stride when play was called off at 4.10 pm (1510GMT) after only two minutes of play with the American leading 1-0.
With Capriati distracted by the light showers that had started falling again, Mauresmo grabbed the break to lead 4-2 before the players headed off back into the locker room.
Play had finally got underway at Wimbledon at 3.55 pm (1455 GMT) on Wednesday after persistent rain had delayed the start for almost four hours.
After rain disrupted Monday and Tuesday’s schedule organisers were keen to catch up and play had been due to start at 12 pm (1100 GMT) on all courts in use.
The outlook for the rest of the day was for more rain, but forecasters said better weather was expected on Thursday.
Due to the backlog of matches, organisers said that play will commence at 11 am on the outside courts and at midday on the Centre and number one courts on Thursday.
Mark Philippoussis and Richard Krajicek, two men who have battled their way back from career-threatening injuries, were locked in an epic confrontation when torrential rain brought a halt to their fourth round clash on Tuesday.
Australian Philippoussis, who has undergone three operations on his left knee, and Dutchman Krajicek, the 1996 winner here who has spent 18 months on the sidelines with a right elbow injury, matched each other serve for serve and point for point in an enthralling duel on Court One.
When the rain came at just after 1900 local time (1800GMT), 30-year-old Krajicek had clawed his way back into the match while Philippoussis was wondering how he hadn’t booked what would have been his fourth career quarter-final at these championships.
Instead, the 25-year-old Aussie, playing in the tournament courtesy of a wild-card, will come out on Wednesday with the scoreline standing at 7-6 (7/2), 6-7 (4/7), 7-6 (7/1), 6-7 (5/7) after three hours and 33 minutes on court and in a match which saw the players having to dodge the showers on three occasions.
Not surprisingly, the first set was dominated by huge serving but poor accuracy with the Australian only having a 48 percent success rate and Krajicek, only slightly better at 52 percent.
The set went to a tie-break which the Australian won convincingly with his fifth ace of the day and his 86th of the tournament.
That took 52 minutes to complete under heavy skies on Court One and the Dutchman’s spirits sank a little further when he lost serve to go 2-1 down early in the second set.
Krajicek then fell 3-1 down and was forced to leave the court for an injury time-out seemingly suffering a problem with his right leg.
But he battled back to level at 5-5 as the second set again headed for a tie-break which he bravely won 7-4 to level the match, eight minutes short of two hours.
The Dutchman then fell behind 2-1 in the third set and would have been happy to see the rain arrive which caused an 80 minute delay.
The third set too went to a tie-break and this time it was Philippoussis who was the stronger winning it 7-1 with a thunderous ace after being helped to a large extent by a double fault and a wild volley from the Dutchman.
Krajicek had to dig deep to stay in the match in the fourth set. He saved two break points in the 11th game before he got the better of Philippoussis in the tie-break.
With no tie-break in a fifth set at Wimbledon, this fourth round tie, which should have started on Monday afternoon, could end up occupying a large part of Wednesday.
REMAINING MATCHES:
4-Tim Henman (Britain) v Andre Sa (Brazil); Mark Philippoussis (Australia) v Richard Krajicek (Netherlands) 7-6 6-7 7-6 6-7 to finish; 1-LLeyton Hewitt (Australia) v 18- SJENG SCHALKEN (NETHERLANDS).
Women singles results: Quarterfinal 9-Amelie Mauresmo (France) beat 3-Jennifer Capriati (U.S.) 6-3 6-2.—Reuters
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