September 5, 2004 Serena, Jennifer Set Up Quarterfinal Clash FLUSHING MEADOWS, NY - When the women's singles draw for the 2004 US Open was conducted, keen tennis watchers immediately looked forward to the potential quarterfinal between regular rivals Serena Williams (right) and Jennifer Capriati. That highly-anticipated encounter will take place at Flushing Meadows on Tuesday after both Americans won fourth round matches Sunday. Williams, the No.3 seed and two-time former champion, put on an impeccable serving display in her best match of the week to defeat No.15 seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 64 62. No.8 seed Capriati, a three-time semifinalist here, came from behind to beat No.12 seed Ai Sugiyama of Japan, 75 62. While Venus Williams and Lindsay Davenport have the most enduring rivalry among active players (meeting for the 25th time in the fourth round on Monday), the Serena-Jennifer match-up has regularly produced some of the most gripping and high-quality matches in recent years. It will be the seventh time the former No.1s have met in a Grand Slam event and the sixth time in the quarterfinal round. Both women will be contesting the US Open quarterfinals for the fifth time in their respective careers. Serena took a 5-1 head-to-head lead against Schnyder into the match, but the Swiss had won their last encounter, on clay in Charleston in 2002. Williams's 12 aces and an 81% success rate on her first serve proved too much for Schnyder on Sunday as the 1999 and 2002 champion advanced to the last eight in 58 minutes. "She's a good player," said Williams of Schnyder. "She's kind of tricky, and her serve is really tricky if you're not really moving your feet. So you have to really be on the beware of her serve." "When she serves that well, I will never be able to make a break," said Schnyder. "If she serves like this, it's hard for anybody. I'm always telling (myself), if I want to win, it's like she has to play like less than one hundred percent." Williams boasts a 10-6 win-loss record against Capriati, but has won only one of their three encounters this year. That was in the Wimbledon quarterfinals in a lopsided 61 61 result. "We're going to be excited to go into the next round," said Williams of playing Capriati. "We're at the US Open, who doesn't want to do good here? I like playing Jennifer a lot, I really do. She brings out the best in me." The Serena-Capriati clash was in danger of not eventuating as Sugiyama burst to a 5-3 lead, holding set point at 5-4. But Capriati forced an error from Sugiyama and took the next three games to wrap up the first set. From there on the American's confidence grew, blasting 12 winners to three to wrap up the second set 6-2 in 27 minutes, spending 70 minutes in total on-court. "I wasn't happy with the game that I played to lose my serve," said Capriati of the first set. "I feel like I just didn't concentrate well and I just decided to try to concentrate a little better and step it up. "I think I served well to get out of it then. So I just played solid tennis and concentrated really well." In playing Serena for the first time at her home Grand Slam, Capriati said she expects Williams to come out firing. "From her you pretty much expect the same thing," said Capriati. "Just feel like either it's going to be like a bulldozer effect or it's just gonna be like a lot of errors." The all-Russian match between Top 10 stars Elena Dementieva, seeded No.6, and No.10 Vera Zvonareva was bound to feature its fair share of drama, with both players known for showing their emotions on-court. Despite romping through the first set 6-1, Zvonareva became visibly upset after going down an early service break in the second. Sobbing and burying her head in a towel at the change of ends, Zvonareva lost the second set 6-4 amid a flurry of unforced errors. The third set was a slightly calmer affair, but Zvonareva's errors continued (63 for the match) and she dropped serve three times to go down 16 64 63 in four minutes short of two hours. "You wouldn't see any fourth round matches of a Grand Slam not emotional," said Zvonareva. "So I think everybody have emotions and everybody try their best." Dementieva is just one match from matching her semifinal effort in 2000, the farthest the 22-year-old had gone in a major until her runner-up finish at Roland Garros earlier this year. "I think that I wasn't playing my best today, but I'm very happy that I was able to win," said Dementieva of her fourth round win. "Sometimes it's important to win a match when something doesn't go too good." Dementieva's next challenge will come from No.2 seed Amelie Mauresmo, who successfully advanced to the quarterfinals for the fourth straight year with a 64 62 win against No.16 seed Francesca Schiavone. Dementieva said she is looking forward to a rematch against the Frenchwoman, whom she defeated in the Roland Garros quarterfinals. "I think if she wins, it's going to be very interesting because we played lot of times against each other," said Dementieva. "I'm sure she wants to take her revenge against me, especially after I beat her in Paris. I know that she's a great player and I have to play my best to win against her." -- ---禅心已作沾泥絮，莫向春风舞鹧鸪--- --

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