Seles, Henin, Mauresmo and Capriati set up Semi's

By Chris Davies
February 20 2003

Defending champion Amelie Mauresmo shook off her awful start to the tournament to ease through to the semi-finals past Lina Krasnoroutskaya

Monica Seles defeated Iroda Tulyaganova of Uzbekistan 6-1, 7-5 and Mauresmo beat Lina Krasnoroutskaya of Russia 6-2, 6-4 Thursday to reach the semifinals of the Dubai Open.

Seles will play defending champion Amelie Mauresmo of France on Friday. After an easy first set, Seles had to work hard to avoid a tiebreaker in the second. Serving for the match at 5-4, Tulyaganova broke her serve to even the set. But Seles broke back and held serve to take the match.

"I got a little bit tight out there and am happy to get it done,'' Seles said.

Mauresmo, coming off a three-set victory over Petra Mandula of Hungary on Wednesday night, dominated her quarterfinal match from the start.

"I played much better today,'' Mauresmo said. "I was very relaxed after last night's match. It is the first time we played each other, but I handled it well.''

Jennifer Capriati moved calmly into the semi-finals with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Spain's Conchita Martinez.

The American was in control throughout the match and produced a range of superb winners.

Capriati will now face Henin-Hardenne who is the top seed, who comprehensively beat Anastasia Myskina 6-1, 6-4.

1 Henin-Hardenne
5 Myskina
6-1, 6-4

3 Capriati
Martinez
6-2, 6-3

4 Seles
Tulyaganova
6-1, 7-5

2 Mauresmo
Krasnoroutskaya
6-2, 6-4