Capriati unhappy at facing Williams

Jennifer Capriati, the former world No1, earned herself a chance to tackle one of her successors by beating the in-form Chanda Rubin 6-2, 6-4 yesterday to reach the final of the Nasdaq-100 Open.

Capriati is recovering steadily from an operation to remove sunspots from her eyeballs but whether that improvement will be enough to trouble Serena Williams, the holder of all four grand slam titles, is something she appears to doubt, for she was reluctant to join in a promotional joke about what her 27th-birthday wish today might be.

"To try to win. If I didn't, that would be a pretty sick joke, right?" she said, a little sourly. The subject was changed to how relaxed she seemed now she was older. "You could say that, but I know a lot of 50-year-olds who aren't," she said, without visible amusement.

Capriati started fast, reacted well to Rubin's recovery to 3-1 in the second set, and found depth and penetration with her most dangerous shot, her running forehand. But Williams' confidence is rising and her ground strokes have been too hot to handle all year.

Meanwhile Roger Federer is developing into one of tennis's great enigmas. Last year he had the title holder Andre Agassi on the rack in the final but allowed him to escape, and now he let the French Open champion Albert Costa get away from him to win 7-6, 4-6, 7-6.

Although it was completed over two days, interrupted by a storm and climaxed by a sudden-death finish, Federer had three match points against the Spaniard and wasted them. The world No4 has talent enough to climb the last few rungs but he will be 22 this year and opportunities are trickling through the hourglass.

Mark Miles knows the art of survival. The ATP chief executive has so cannily defused pressure from the new breakaway players' group, the International Men's Tennis Association, that his 12-year tenure of the role was yesterday extended for another two.