Agassi, Capriati and Davenport Make Semis

M E L B O U R N E, Australia, Jan. 23, 2001 -- Patrick Rafter played commandingtennis before his home fans today, winning 12 of the last 13games to beat Dominik Hrbaty in four sets and reach the AustralianOpen semifinals.

The Aussie rebounded from a 4-1 deficit in the third set, thenswept the next one to win 6-2, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-0 and set up ashowdown with defending champion Andre Agassi.

"This is what it feels like, huh?" said Rafter, who has wontwo U.S. Opens and was runner-up last year at Wimbledon but neverhad done better at the Australian than the fourth round in 1995."It's been a long time. It feels very satisfying being at homedoing it."

Agassi used his full arsenal to beat Todd Martin 7-5, 6-3, 6-4.Martin already had knocked out Pete Sampras, preventing a rematchof last year's semifinal in which Agassi rallied past Sampras infive sets.

Rafter is the first Australian to go this far in his homecountry's Grand Slam tournament since Mark Woodforde reached thesemifinals in 1996.

He displayed crafty serving and acrobatic volleying. He also washelped by Hrbaty. The No. 14 seeded player double-faulted twicewhen he was broken in the third set's seventh game and once morewhen he was broken again in the 11th.

Capriati, Davenport to Hold Semifinal Rematch

On the women's side, No. 12 Jennifer Capriati rallied from a 4-2deficit in the second set and reached the Australian semifinals forthe second straight year with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory overfour-time Australian Open champion Monica Seles.

In a rematch of one of last year's semifinals, she facesdefending champion Lindsay Davenport, who beat No. 8 AnnaKournikova 6-4, 6-2.

Kournikova, in a Grand Slam quarterfinal for the first timesince reaching the semifinals at Wimbledon in 1997, had somechances but made too many errors.

Davenport said Kournikova hits very hard and flat, and "doesn'thave a huge margin for error. Sometimes you get a lot of freepoints."

Davenport, seeded second, was called for foot faults severaltimes.

"I'll have to work on that," she said. "It didn't hurt metonight."

Agassi Attempts to Defend Title

Agassi's best moment came on match point. Martin hit a goodangled volley. Agassi chased it down, blasted a shot that Martincould only block back, and then lobbed over him.

Agassi interrupted his match briefly to catch a bug near thebaseline and throw it off court. Martin, trailing 30-40 and 1-2 inthe final set, waited out the distraction and then served an ace.

He then held serve and, three games later, broke Agassi for a4-3 lead. But Agassi broke right back and went on to win.

Agassi's Australian Open triumph last year ended a run of fourGrand Slam tournaments in which he also won the French and U.S.Opens and was runner-up at Wimbledon.

"There's no saying it can't be done," he said of winning allfour in a year. "But I think we're a lot closer to seeing MarkMcGwire's home run record being beat than we are to seeing someonewin four Grand Slams in the same year in the men's game."

Martin said the Sampras he beat — ending a 13-match losingstreak against him — was out of practice, but "Andre is very muchin form. … Andre thrives on confidence, and he's got plenty ofit."

"I was beaten today," Martin said. "I certainly didn't lose.I didn't play nearly as well as I had hoped. Most of that is due tothe way Andre played."

Agassi improved his record against Martin to 13-5. Nobody everhas beaten both Sampras and Agassi at a Grand Slam tournament.

Capriati's victory made her a Grand Slam tournament semifinalistfor only the second time since 1991, when she was 15.

Capriati Wins Eight Straight Games to Down Seles

"It's one of the best matches I've played," said the24-year-old Capriati. "It kind of reminded me of the old days."

She lost the first set after saving seven points in a final gamewith 22 points and eight deuces, and fell behind in the second.After a double fault gave Seles a 4-2 lead, Capriati hurled herracket to the court, drawing a warning from the umpire.

Then she won eight games in a row.

"I just changed making so many errors and kept the ball in thecourt more. She started missing. Before I knew it, I won thatsecond set," Capriati said.

It was Seles' second loss in 39 matches at Australian Opens. Shewon the title in 1991-93 and 1996, and her only other loss was toMartina Hingis in the 1999 semifinals.

In remaining quarterfinals Wednesday, top-seeded Hingis playsNo. 6 Serena Williams, and No. 3 Venus Williams meets No. 10 AmandaCoetzer.

On the men's side, 1999 champion and 2000 runner-up YevgenyKafelnikov plays No. 15 Arnaud Clement, and No. 16 SebastienGrosjean meets Carlos Moya, who is unseeded but a former No. 1.

After Grosjean beat No. 4 Magnus Norman on Monday night, allfour top men's seeds were gone before the quarterfinals for onlythe third time in a Grand Slam tournament since the Open era beganin 1968.

No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten, No. 2 Safin and No. 3 Sampras lostearlier.