TENNIS FRENCH OPEN : Rain Dampens Capriati’s Spirits as Seles Advances to Semifinals

For Monica Seles, the route to the French Open semifinals was as straightforward as a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Jennifer Capriati.

For Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini, it was much more difficult.

But when they completed their quarterfinal matches Tuesday at Roland Garros Stadium, the first four seeded women--also including Arantxa Sanchez Vicario--were ensured berths in Thursday’s semifinals.

Seles, seeded No. 1, will face No. 3 Sabatini, a 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 winner over Conchita Martinez of Spain. Graf, seeded No. 2, will face No. 4 Sanchez Vicario after eliminating Natalia Zvereva, 6-3, 6-7 (7-4), 6-3. Sanchez Vicario beat Manon Bollegraf of the Netherlands, 6-2, 6-3, in the other quarterfinal.

On a cold, windy day that was interrupted by a four-hour rain delay, the elite of women’s tennis warmed to the occasion.

Sort of.

“When I got on the court, I kind of became dizzy,” Seles said of the long delay before her match in the early evening. “I really was disoriented.”

Seles lost the first two games, but never appeared worried. Realizing that her ground strokes were ineffective, she decided against matching the hard-hitting Capriati in a baseline slugfest.

“I knew that I am probably not going to out-hit her,” Seles said.

Instead, Seles mixed the action--a backhand slice here, a drop shot there. Seles held her second serve, then broke Capriati to even the set, 2-2.

In the sixth game, the fifth-seeded Capriati took a 40-0 lead and appeared that she would settle into a close match against Seles.

Then, suddenly, she was in trouble.

Seles rallied to 40-40 when Capriati began making errors. After saving two break points, Capriati lost her serve when she hit a backhand into the net. Capriati, 16, went meekly after that.

Capriati relies on powerful ground strokes that keep opponents off balance. But the red clay on Center Court Tuesday was wet and sticky, barely more than mud. Her shots lost their zip after bouncing on the slow surface, and Seles took advantage.

“I felt everything was just heavy and slow out there,” said Capriati, a semifinalist here in 1990. “I did try to attack. . . . I just wasn’t moving my feet.”

Capriati, who looked uninterested in the early rounds, said she was excited about playing Seles, 18. In their only previous match this year, Capriati won in two sets at Key Biscayne, Fla.

After warming up on an outside court Tuesday morning, Capriati was fresh and ready to go.

“I felt real good and focused,” she said.

Then it rained, and Capriati appeared to lose her concentration. Although she won the first two games of each set, she was never really in the match.

Capriati had 37 unforced errors, Seles 19. Capriati also double-faulted five times, twice in a row during the sixth game of the second set to fall behind, 4-2.

Seles also had difficulty regaining composure after the long delay. But she settled down once she began moving Capriati around the court. Still, she was unable to relax, because Capriati unleashed some powerful winners late in the match.

“They just zoomed by me,” Seles said. “I didn’t even see them.”

Graf saw a different player from the one she had defeated eight times without a loss when she met No. 28 Zvereva on Court 1. Graf waltzed through the first four rounds with the kind of straight-set victories that characterize women’s tennis in the early segments of Grand Slam events.

She was headed for another rout when Zvereva, from Belarus, found her rhythm and hit a couple of winners during the second set.

“My game is better when I’m down,” said Zvereva, who had 78 unforced errors.

Zvereva, 21, has been down since Graf swept her in the 1988 French Open final, 6-0, 6-0.

“I choked big time,” she recalled. “I really did.”

That defeat has haunted her, but after Tuesday, she was feeling much better about her game. The 2-hour 16-minute match gave her the confidence to regain her top-10 ranking, Zvereva said.

For now, however, she will be on the sidelines as Graf and the other semifinalists continue to dominate women’s tennis. Graf, a two-time French Open champion, was disappointed by her performance, although she made the semifinals for the sixth consecutive year.

She was clearly bothered by the light rain that dampened the clay during the third set. After taking a 4-0 lead, Graf lost three games before finally finishing it. Zvereva’s letdown, as much as Graf’s winners, made the difference.

Whereas Graf suffered from some lapses, Sabatini simply ran into an inspired opponent who refused to miss in her quarterfinal.

Martinez, seeded seventh, used a steady game to win the first set. When she opened the second set with a 3-0 lead, Sabatini appeared to be in trouble.

Keeping her poise, however, Sabatini changed strategies.

“I didn’t know how to play (her) when she changed,” Martinez said.

Sabatini took control. After winning six games in a row to tie the match, 1-1, Sabatini dominated thereafter.

When rain started during the third set, Martinez asked for play to be suspended.

“The court was really slippery, but they didn’t want to stop,” she said.

Neither did Sabatini, who slipped twice.

“When you’re winning like that, you don’t want to stop,” she said.

It didn’t matter. Sabatini ended it quickly, advancing to a showdown against Seles, whom she defeated in the final of the Italian Open two weeks ago.

So, which of the big four are going to reach Saturday’s final?

Jennifer Capriati, for one, would not say.

“I don’t care,” she said.

Tennis Notes

A men’s quarterfinal match between Jim Courier of Dade City, Fla., and Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia was suspended Tuesday night with the top-ranked Courier leading, 6-2, 6-1, 2-6. The match is scheduled to resume today, along with the other men’s quarterfinals. Ivanisevic handed Courier his first set loss of the tournament. . . . The highly anticipated Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi match also is scheduled for Center Court today. . . . So what did Jennifer Capriati do for fun during her stay in Paris? She went to see the movie “Basic Instinct.”