TENNIS / WOMEN AT LA COSTA : Capriati Lifts Game to Reach Final

The finish forgave the false start.

For the second consecutive day, second-seeded Jennifer Capriati started slowly, picked up the pace and ended her performance in near perfection.

In the opening semifinal of the Mazda Tennis Classic on Saturday, Capriati took a 7-6 (8-6), 3-6, 6-1 victory over Germany’s Anke Huber.

Spain’s Conchita Martinez won her semifinal against Leila Meskhi, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-2, in front of a sellout crowd of 5,200 at the La Costa Resort & Spa, to set the stage for today’s 11 a.m. championship match.

Capriati, of Saddlebrook, Fla., ranked sixth in the world, hopes she doesn’t continue the pattern of her last two matches, when she has fallen behind each time.

Against Huber, it was Friday all over, when Capriati lost four consecutive games before she defeated Zina Garrison, 6-4, 6-4.

But could Capriati afford to spot Huber, who played as well or better than anyone all week, that same four-game lead?

“Against a top player you can’t afford to do that, because maybe you’re not going to get lucky enough to come back,” Capriati said. “The really top players will probably close me out.”

Huber, seeded fourth, is getting there, but she let Capriati off the hook too soon. The 11th-ranked German dropped the next four games, including one on serve that she lost after taking a 40-15 lead.

“I think I wanted it a little bit too much at this point,” said Huber, 17. “I had a lot of chances to win the first set.”

Said Capriati: “She was playing extremely well, she came out blazing in those four games, hitting her shots well and deep, keeping me on the baseline and moving me from side to side.”

After two service breaks, Capriati took the tiebreaker on a volley winner and a shot by Huber that went long.

Huber broke serve twice and won the second set easily--it was the first set she has won from Capriati--but Capriati came out in the third with a determination she previously lacked.

“I didn’t feel I was in control the whole match before that,” Capriati said. “When I took the 3-0 lead (in the third set), I kind of felt things starting to go my way.”

Last year, Martinez, who won an Olympic silver medal in doubles with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, suffered a foot injury and lost to Capriati in the semifinals here, 6-4, 6-0.

Capriati has a 2-1 edge in head-to-head meetings, Martinez taking a 6-3, 6-3 victory in the round of 16 at the French Open last year.

Martinez said she will simply try to play her best against Capriati, but Meskhi said she likes Martinez’s chances.

“I think (Jennifer) will have trouble hitting her high balls,” Meskhi said. “I think it will be a good match.”