Serena Has a Score to Settle in Victory

A player hits a 111-mph ace in a tiebreaker and the natural tendency is to keep moving forward.

But Serena Williams took it one step beyond. Well, make that a few steps. She started to change sides, got close to the net and noticed her opponent, Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia, was not moving or getting ready to serve. The realization that it was only 3-0 in the tiebreaker hit her and Williams started laughing.

That was essentially her last misstep in Saturday’s quarterfinals at the Home Depot WTA Championships.

“I don’t know what I was thinking, I was just gone,” said Williams, who broke out her black “catsuit” for the occasion.

Gone, but not for long. The top-seeded defending champion dropped one point in the tiebreaker and swept the second set, defeating No. 8 Dokic, 7-6 (1), 6-0, in an hour at Staples Center before an announced 6,559. Today’s semifinals will feature No. 2 Venus Williams against No. 5 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, followed by Serena against No. 3 Jennifer Capriati.

Capriati had to go three sets against Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria before winning their quarterfinal, 6-2, 4-6, 6-1, in 1 hour 33 minutes. The announced crowd for their afternoon match was 4,788 but appeared to be closer to the 2,500-3,000 range.

Of the 12 singles matches in this tournament, only two have gone three sets.

There almost was no singles match at night. The appearance of Dokic was far from certain because of an injured right ankle, which she suffered in practice during the week before the season-ending tournament. Whether she would play or not was in doubt a couple of hours before the match, and organizers were working on a backup plan; for example, an exhibition between Williams and alternate Alexandra Stevenson.

Dokic tested the ankle, then went ahead and played. She knew she could not sustain long rallies against Williams, so Dokic went for the quick winner. The tactic paid off early as Dokic led, 4-1, before Williams quit spraying the ball long and wide. Dokic came within two points of winning the first set, at 30-30 on Williams’ serve in the 12th game. But Williams won the next two points to send it to a tiebreaker.

“It was a little bit hard to move and I wasn’t even sure I was going to play,” said Dokic, who reported that she had stretched ligaments in her ankle. “I was hurting a little bit more in the second set. If I was limping, I wouldn’t be on the court.

“I was good enough to play a set or two, but against Serena you have to be 100%, which I wasn’t.”

Williams raised her level when it was necessary but wasn’t thrilled with her own effort, saying, “I was just making too many errors. I wasn’t attacking my shots and [was] letting her dictate play. I didn’t play exceptionally well.”

She is 6-4 against Capriati but has won their last five matches, four of them this year.

“I never feel like an underdog against Serena,” Capriati said. “It’s just we always have really tough matches, close matches and it just seems like who’s really on that day or who’s just playing well that day.”

Maleeva attributed her inability to finish strong against Capriati to the same reason given by most of the losing players this week: She was tired. Very tired.

She said she didn’t want to talk about it, then did so at great length. After winning the second set with a drop shot, Maleeva faded badly and failed to hold serve in the third set, losing it in 27 minutes. Capriati broke her serve nine times in the match.

“I wish I had won, but I think it’s really nice to be 27 and realize you’re playing some of your best tennis,” Maleeva said. “I don’t want to be one of those players that had their best time when they were 22 and 23 and then they’re kind of always a little bit not as good.”

Maleeva is one of the more honest players on the tour and she was frank about the general lack of buzz and sparse crowds at this event. She was asked if it felt like the world championship of women’s tennis, as advertised.

“It doesn’t feel like it, does it?” Maleeva said. “We were all very excited to come here, and we all fought hard to make the top 16, so I was glad to make it here. It’s really unfortunate to play in front of those small crowds, but hopefully it will get better.”

Where? In Houston? Or back in New York?

“It’s just unfortunate you have [Justine] Henin and Clijsters playing yesterday, two of the best players in the world, and there were just a few people,” Maleeva said.