Capriati stages superb comeback

Jennifer Capriati came back from the brink of defeat to beat Serena Williams 6-7 (4-7), 7-5, 6-3 in a thrilling Wimbledon quarter-final and keep alive her dream of a Grand Slam of major titles on Tuesday.

The fourth seed looked dead and buried at 5-3 down in the second set but she won nine games in succession as Williams's confidence deserted her in the all-American battle on Centre Court.

Capriati, the Australian and French Open champion, swept into a 5-0 lead in the third set before Williams finally held her serve, broke back for 5-2 and held serve again for 5-3.

But the 25-year-old Capriati - who also beat Williams in the quarter-finals of the French Open - held on to take her place in the Wimbledon semifinals for the first time since 1991 when she was the youngest player to reach the last four aged 15.

She plays Justine Henin of Belgium after the eighth seed thrashed former champion Conchita Martinez of Spain 6-1, 6-0.

Neither player hit the top of their form and fifth seed Williams appeared to have taken a stranglehold when she started to attack the net late in the first set.

Capriati sent down three double faults and squandered three set points serving at 5-4 in the first set and then lost the tiebreak.

Capriati, whose comeback from personal problems is the stuff of fairytales, hung in there and appeared to be refreshed after she took a 10-minute injury time-out at 3-2 down in the second set.

Venus Williams crushes Tauziat's revival

Defending champion Venus Williams swept into the semifinals after overpowering Nathalie Tauziat 7-5, 6-1 to bring the curtain down on the Frenchwoman's 16th and final appearance at Wimbledon.

But the second seed allowed Tauziat to fight back from 5-1 down in the first set to 5-5 and will have to raise her game when she faces either third seed Lindsay Davenport or Belgian Kim Clijsters for a place in the final.

It took one hour for the American to overwhelm 33-year-old Tauziat, the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since Martina Navratilova who got to the 1994 Wimbledon final aged 37.

Despite losing her serve in the third game, 21-year-old Williams raced ahead in the first set.

But the ninth seed, who had won just three points on her own serve until then, fought back with a vengeance and suddenly Williams's serve looked very vulnerable.

Tauziat saved five set points at 5-1 and another two at 5-3 to get back into the match. Williams stopped the rot at 5-5, held her serve and broke Tauziat to love to take the set.

The second set was a mirror image of the first.

Williams raced to a 5-1 lead but this time made no mistake, serving out to win on her first matchpoint.

For Tauziat, a finalist at Wimbledon in 1998, it was a bitterly disappointing way to bow out as Williams feasted on her serve whenever she dropped it short.