Capriati comeback keeps dream alive at Wimbledon

Jennifer Capriati teetered on the brink of a Grand Slam-shattering defeat on Tuesday before pulling off a spectacular comeback to beat Serena Williams 6-7 7-5 6-3 in the Wimbledon quarter-finals.

The American - already Australian and French Open champion - was two points away from tumbling out of the year's third Grand Slam but clawed her way back with a gutsy Centre Court display.

"I really gave it everything I got. Even when you're down you never say die," the American fourth seed said.

Capriati next meets eighth seed Justine Henin as she bids to become only the third player to win all four "majors" in a calendar year. The Belgian teenager thrashed former champion Conchita Martinez 6-1 6-0.

While Serena, who said she was suffering from a viral illness, crumbled on Centre Court, elder sister and defending champion Venus strode confidently into the semifinals, beating Nathalie Tauziat 7-5 6-1.

Venus will now take on 1999 champion Lindsay Davenport in a repetition of last year's final after her fellow American thrashed seventh seed Kim Clijsters - runner-up in last month's French Open - 6-1 6-2.

In the only men's singles match of the day, British sixth seed Tim Henman staged a fine recovery against American Todd Martin to reach the quarter-finals.

FIRST BRITON

Resuming their fourth-round match two sets to one down, Henman outplayed the 31-year-old American to seal a 6-7 7-6 4-6 6-3 6-2 victory on Centre Court.

The 26-year-old is looking to become the first Briton to win the men's singles title since 1936. Henman now plays Swiss teenager Roger Federer, who beat seven-times champion Pete Sampras in the last 16, in the quarter-finals.

"I'd be stupid to think this will be some kind of easy match for me," Henman said, looking ahead.

"It was a hell of a result for Federer to beat Sampras (in the fourth round)... I've never beaten Sampras on grass."

Capriati looked dead and buried when trailing by a set, 5-3 and 30-0 but she won nine games in succession as Williams's confidence deserted her in the all-American battle.

She won four straight games to clinch the second set 7-5 and then swept into a 5-0 lead in the decider before her fellow American finally held her serve, broke back for 5-2 and held serve again for 5-3.

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.

Capriati, whose comeback from personal problems is the stuff of fairytales, is bidding to become only the third woman after Margaret Court and Steffi Graf to win all four Grand Slam tournaments in a calendar year.

IT'S BIZARRE

"I just thought back to the French Open final. I was also two points from defeat there and won. I thought 'if you can do it there you can do it here,' and it worked," she said.

Williams, the fifth seed, explained she had been unable to keep her food down for several days.

"I'm not alive right now... I was in pain. It's bizarre - I've never had this before," she said. "For four days I've been struggling, I've just been going on emotion."

"I haven't really been able to eat. I went to the doctor twice and it is some viral infection. I think I've had it for a while and it has come to an apex now."

Venus Williams did enough to end Tauziat's 16th and final appearance at Wimbledon, but she had to quell a first-set revolt in which the 33-year-old pulled back from 5-1 to 5-5.

It took her one hour to overwhelm the Frenchwoman, the oldest woman to reach a Grand Slam quarter-final since Martina Navratilova who got to the 1994 Wimbledon final aged 37.

"I think maybe I got a little overconfident and then she started to play a lot better," the second seed said.

"I felt a little rushed, but I was able to say 'you better calm down and get through it'."

Henin, a semifinalist at the French Open last month,- won 12 straight games to embarrass 1994 champion Martinez on court one in a desperately one-sided affair which lasted 57 minutes.

STRONG SUN

"I'm so happy to be in the semifinals," the 19-year-old said. "I had maybe an easy match in the score but I had to play well.

"I was expecting a harder match as she is a lot more experienced on grass."

Henin and Martinez's first meeting was not one either of them is likely to forget.

Martinez had won all three of her previous Wimbledon quarter-finals, but the last of those was in 1995 and the Spaniard looked a shadow of her former self under strong sun.

"It was one of the worst days of my life playing tennis," said the 29-year-old Spaniard, who lost 12 consecutive games in the course of a shambolic serving display.

"I played really badly, nothing worked for me. I played a really bad match. I can't explain it."

Davenport destroyed Clijsters with a mixture of touch and power on Centre Court.

The American looked confident and in control although Clijsters never hit the form she is capable of.

"I thought I played well," Davenport said. "She helped me a lot by making it a little bit easier on me... but I thought everything was great."