Serena carries on winning streak

By Chris Davies
March 31 2003

Serena Williams overcome a birthday girl and determined Jennifer Capriati in the final of the NasDaq 100 Open on Saturday afternoon to retain her title for a second time

Capriati who turned 27 on finals day found herself 2-0 down in the first set but came back to win the tense set 6-4 where Serena showed signs of actually losing her first match of the year, producing 14 unforced errors compared to 3 from Jennifer.

The second set was very even but with Serena storming to a 4-0 lead seeing it at 5-4. Capriati found the pressure to much in a long deuce game at 5-4, Serena took her chance after 5 set points but the former world number 1 had plenty of chances to equal the set at 5-5 but didn't captilise the way the current number 1 did, winning 6-4 in a 50 minute set.

Final set of what looked to be a fantastic battle turned a bit more sided with Williams steamrolling through the set towards her third title of the year. Capriati's 83% first serve percentage wasn't enough with only 47% of them being winners.

Serena dominated the third set not letting Capriati break her serve on 2 occasions and keeping her unforced errors down to 7. The set only lasted 37 minutes, Williams wins 6-1.


(1) S Williams bt (5) J Capriati

4-6, 6-4, 6-1