PARIS, Feb 9: Yugoslavian teenager Jelena Dokic clinched her first ever victory over Monica Seles here on Saturday to reach the final of the 585,000-dollar Paris WTA event.
The 18-year-old won a dramatic 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 semi-final against her 28-year-old American opponent and will now face either Wimbledon and US Open champion Venus Williams or France’s defending champion Amelie Mauresmo in Sunday’s final.
“I am very happy to have beaten Monica for the first time and reaching the final in just my second tournament of the season has given me great confidence for the rest of the year,” said Dokic who had lost all her four previous meetings with Seles.
Before Saturday’s semi-final, Dokic, the fourth seed here, had only ever taken one set off her more experienced opponent and that was two years ago in Italy.
Since that time, Seles, the fifth seed in Paris, had beaten her to take the bronze medal at the Sydney Olympics and had also triumphed in their most recent meeting in the final at Bahia, Brazil last year.
Dokic looked to be on course for an easy win on Saturday grabbing a vital break of serve in the fourth game of the opening set and then again in the third game of the second set.
However, Seles, the winner of 51 titles in her career, refused to surrender and hit back to level the match, 6-3 in the second set.
Dokic won the vital break in the 10th game of the final set to take her place in the final where she will be hoping to clinch the fourth title of her career to add to the victories in Rome, Tokyo and Moscow in 2001.
Late Friday evening, Wimbledon and US Open champion Venus Williams devoured the feeble challenge of Italy’s Silvia Farina Elia taking just 49 minutes to move into the semifinals with a 6-2, 6-1 victory.
Only 13 ranking places separate the two players on the WTA computer, but on Friday’s evidence they were worlds apart.
However top-seeded Williams will face a more daunting task if she is to make Sunday’s final as she now faces France’s defending champion Amelie Mauresmo, the number three seed, in late Saturday’s semi-final.
Mauresmo easily defeated unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone of Italy 6-2, 6-2 in her quarter-final.
SERENA WITHDRAWS:
World number six Serena Williams has pulled out of next week’s tournament in Antwerp, the WTA said on Saturday, but her elder sister Venus has accepted a last-minute wild card into the event.
Serena, who had been seeded number two, is still recovering from an ankle injury which kept her out of last month’s Australian Open.
She sprained her right ankle during the first set of her semifinal match at the Sydney International against Meghann Shaughnessy in January.—AFP/Reuters