Kournikova Beats Capriati at HK Women's ChallengeTop seed Russian Anna Kournikova overcame from one set down to oust defending champion American Jennifer Capriati 3-6, 7-5, 6-0 in Hong Kong on January 5 night in the semi-final of 2001 Hong Kong women's tennis challenge.In-form Capriati blamed her defeat on her recurring right leg injury and Kournikova's passionate fans. Capriati won the first set 6-3 with her powerful fore and back hand ground-strokes and quick movement and continued her lead to 5-3 in the second set. At the crucial time, local fans awarded more applauds to Kournikova and it did distract for Capriati. "Whenever you play against Anna, you have to be more concentrated as the crowd are always on her side and suddenly there are 20 more (camera) flashes," said Capriati, who is ranked 14 in the world. Then tired Capriati lost her concentration and began to make mistakes in the following games. Then the match turned out to be one-sided when Kournikova took the following 10 games without any answers. Third seed Jelena Dokic fought from one set down to outsmash second seed Elena Dementieva, up-and-rising Russian star, 3-6, 6-3 and 6-4 in the other semi-final on Friday. |
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