Monica Seles, hoping that the fitness training of track and field coach Bob Kersee would take her to a level high enough to contest another Grand Slam final, was blinking in confusion following her collapse in the third set of her match with last year's champion Lindsay Davenport.

Having lost the first set on a tie break, Davenport went on to clinch the second set 6-4 before Seles' energy levels went into a downward spiral. Davenport finished the match with a 6-0 final set rout and will meet Jelena Dokic in tomorrow's semi-final.

It was a disappointing end to Seles' bid to make an imprint on the top end of the game, having gamely struggled since being stabbed in the back by a deranged Steffi Graf supporter in 1993.

Seles has always argued that although Wimbledon is her favourite event, her game is more suited to clay and hard courts.

Davenport can now bring a place in the final more firmly into focus. Her meeting with the Australian Dokic, who impetuously brushed past Spain's Magui Serna 6-3, 6-2 to reach her first ever Grand Slam semi-final, is just one round away from a decider against one of the Williams sisters. Of the four players left, only the youngest, Dokic (17) is non-American.

Seles was at odds to explain the third set, having played so strongly in the first and second. She is only the second player in this year's championship to have taken the second seed to three sets. But it is the finish that will linger.

"Definitely my energy level was not the same in the third set as in the first and second," said Seles. "I'm still trying to make improvements there. I still have a long way to go."

Davenport's serve was her main destructive component, although fearing the quality of Seles' ground stokes, she rarely followed it to the net. The 24year-old hit only two successful volley points in the entire three sets to Seles' one, but boomed 20 backhand winners.

"It looks like all the players left in the tournament are hard hitting baseliners and powerful players. Pound for pound, shot for shot, the Williams' might hit the ball a little bit harder than I do, but I'm right up there. Sometimes placement is more important," said Davenport, who has yet to see Dokic hit a competitive ball at Wimbledon. "My coach went out to watch her today, and her match a couple of days ago, in the anticipation that she might get through," she said.

"I think if you look at American players, they go for their shots more, they hit the ball harder than Europeans. I think that's true in mens' and womens' (tennis). None of us are so good on clay. We are all looking forward to the faster surface."

Dokic will be asked to counter that observation tomorrow. Unranked last year at the Australian Open, she is now assured of £101,470, her biggest ever pay day, and a place in people's hearts. Davenport, because of her articulate and understated manner, is a crowd favourite, but few can blank out Dokic's on-court elfin charm.

"I struggled a little bit after Wimbledon last year. But I've now gotten my form back. I've played well and done well in other tournaments," said Dokic. "You get to this point where you think `is this really possible?' I'm in the last four in a Grand Slam. It's amazing what goes through your head."

Not in the least where Dokic is concerned. Her off-court headlines have finally been surpassed by the quality of her championship run, which has been similar to that of Serena Williams in that she has not yet dropped a set.