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Page 2
Capriati had a fairy tale run through to the Australian Open semi finals this year for her first major semi in over eight years. The talented former teenage phenom, who dropped off the circuit for a number of years citing burn out, was clearly the crowd favourite in Melbourne, an acknowledgement of the courage and the hard work it took for Capriati to get to that stage of the tournament. While the congenial Davenport appreciated the story of Capriati, she was not about to let sentiment get in the way of business as she wanted a berth in a Grand Slam final. Both had previously blown away opportunities to reach some Grand Slam finals (Davenport converting on two occasions), reminiscing back to US Open 1991 when Capriati was two points away from upsetting Monica Seles for a berth in her first major final. Davenport also missed her opportunity at last year's Australian Open when she was 4-2 up in the third set against the inexperienced Amelie Mauresmo, only to let her opportunity slip by losing 7-5 in the decider.
It was never going to be easy for Jennifer to battle the world #2. Not only was Lindsay more experienced in big-match situations but she also had just a touch more firepower than Jennifer. That firepower was on full throttle in the first set as Lindsay overwhelmed her compatriot 6-2 in the first. However, Jennifer staged a remarkabole comeback, fighting her way back into the match by taking advantage of the unforced errors creeping into Lindsay's game, and dominated with some penetrating groundstrokes to break Lindsay three times in the second set. One of those service breaks came when Lindsay was serving for the match at 6-2 5-4, letting Jennifer off the hook to find herself serving to stay in the set at 6-2 5-6. A tiebreak ensued with some of the most hard-hitting rallies of the tournament. There was no holding back whatsoever in the tiebreak as both girls tried to gain the advantage over the other by using their arsenal of powerful weapons. Once again, the Davenport experience and firepower beat Capriati in the end, but it turned out that it was not by much as she took the second set 7-6(4). Martina Hingis versus Conchita Martinez played as a "snooze-fest" in comparison to the previous semi final. Martinez certainly did well to get her game back on track to reach her first Grand Slam semi final since the 1998 Australian Open. However, you'd be hard pressed to find many spectators of the game as fans of the slow, moon-balling topspin game Conchita possesses. Nevertheless, the topspin baseline game which drives most of her opponents crazy did not have too much of an effect on the steady, creative game of Martina Hingis who handled the change of pace and the break-up of rhythm by giving Conchita a taste of her own medicine at times. Evidently, Hingis has also been juicing up her groundstrokes in order to compete with the Davenports, the Williamses, the Pierces and the Seleses of the WTA tour, displaying the hard gym sessions she has put in over the holiday period. Just for touch, Hingis added in a multitude of dropshots against an opponent who had played a two hour epic match the day before. Hingis won the match with not too many problems, winning 6-3 6-2.
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