Capriati to give Serena first proper test

While the gathering clouds over a bleak London presented their own strikingly obvious threats to the Wimbledon order, the top seeds yesterday could hardly have dreamed of having such a cloudless journey, writes Johnny Watterson from Wimbledon.

As if Serena and Venus Williams, Jennifer Capriati, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Lindsay Davenport were under some dire warning to complete their passage to the quarter-finals before the first burst of water fell at 2.20 p.m., all charged through their opponents as if to better each other in terms of how short a time they spent on court. These were short sprints without hurdles.

Kim Clijsters, evidently addicted to a primary tactic of storming her opponents before they find their bearings, sent Ai Sugiyama back to the locker room before two o'clock in a match which began three minutes after one.

Serena Williams took nine minutes longer to fillet and bone a player with a respectable ranking and a game big enough to have promised a more doughty fight. Elena Dementieva, the 16th seed from Russia, departed 6-2, 6-2.

"I never exceed my expectations," said Serena in response to the suggestion she dealt with the Dementieva game more easily than anticipated.

Clijsters' win was her 50th singles triumph of the year. The last person to pass the half century mark in singles match wins so early in the season was Martina Navratilova in 1982, after she won her third round match here.

Davenport curtly ended Japanese hopes with a 47-minute thumping of Shinobu Asagoe. A 6-4 first set seemed to indicate Davenport was going to have a dogfight of an afternoon but the American proceeded to take 17 minutes to clean her opponent out 6-1 in the second set.

Capriati and Venus followed a similar script, Williams taking an hour to dust off the player who had knocked her out of the French Open in the fourth round, 21-year-old Vera Zvonereva.

A 6-1, 6-3 scoreline swept away that Russian, while Capriati dropped just five games to another, Anastasia Myskina. At one point in the afternoon the four remaining American players were all simultaneously a service break up in their respective matches.

"Seems like we all walked into the locker room at the same time too," said Davenport. "Yeh, I think the top players are playing well right now. I mean everyone was just sitting there ready to go as soon as it dried. Everyone was real eager to get out there and get it in, in case it rained again, get down to business."

The rout and re-establishment of the pecking order may have made for a mundane fourth round but it has set up quarter-finals that will measure the distance between the Americans. The Belgians probably come into it too.

Capriati must face the world number one, Serena, while Davenport plays Venus. Clijsters has the easiest of runs, against the 27th seed, Silvia Elia Farina, with Henin-Hardenne, who ended the run of Mary Pierce 6-3, 6-3, facing Svetlana Kuznetsova.

The only remaining Russian saw off 16-year-old compatriot Maria Sharapova in three sets, 6-1, 2-6, 7-5, so ending the run of one of the most exciting talents to emerge this year.

The Capriati quarter-final against Serena is expected to be Williams' first test of the championship. No one else has come close to extending the holder, while eighth-seed Capriati has been lying low, winning her matches without serious threat but not always with the élan and venom of Williams.

"Anyone that I play, especially the number one player in the world, I'm going to get fired up for," said Capriati. "This is the quarter-finals of Wimbledon."

Williams has had her compatriot in view since the draw was made but was careful not to slight Capriati or offend her with faint praise, not a difficult thing to do when you have won the last seven meetings, although none of them on grass. Capriati won that encounter at the quarter-final stage in 2001.

"My dad and I were talking about how well she's doing," said Williams. "Her return is going very well. She's staying really low on the grass. It's kind of hard to stay low all of the time."

Williams stayed away from the issue of the Capriati serve, the second one particularly. When it's off, it's very off and when it's on Williams will step inside the baseline and feast on it anyway.

Venus will meet Davenport, expecting to extend her run of wins to six in succession.

Last time the players met on grass was in the 2001 Wimbledon semi-final, which Williams won in three sets before going on to win the competition for the second time.