Clijsters Bustles to Last Four

What a difference a year makes. This same week in 2002 saw Kim Clijsters worrying about a persistent shoulder injury, Daniela Hantuchova advancing to the world's top 10 and Jelena Dokic meeting the former formula one racing driver Enrique Bernoldi under the pink chestnut blossoms and beginning a ground-shaking romance at the beautiful Rot-Weiss club.

Yesterday Clijsters showed herself the world's most improved leading player, Hantuchova endured a worrying exit and Dokic heard that her father never wanted to see her again. Bernoldi is "an idiot," according to Damir Dokic, and of the daughter he coached for so long he says: "She has left so we don't need her. I'm so angry, she's done things she's not supposed to."

Clijsters, meanwhile, has ensconced herself with Lleyton Hewitt, who has helped give her stability and a cleaner pair of heels. The Wimbledon champion watched yesterday as his Dutch amour bustled her way into the last four of the German Open, overwhelming a subdued Hantuchova 6-0, 6-3.

Cljisters may, nevertheless, be up against it today because she faces Jennifer Capriati, whom she has never beaten. Capriati completed her third straight-sets victory in a row over a good opponent, the Kazakhstan-born Muscovite Elena Likhovtseva.

An ambitious quartet has survived into these semi-finals, the others being Amélie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne, who recently took the notable scalp of Serena Williams and has predicted an end to her domination.

Switzerland's Roger Federer, the most gifted player in the world's top 10, continued his rich vein of clay-court form when he defeated Italy's Filippo Volandri 6-3, 5-7 ,6-2 to reach today's semi-final of the Italian Open for the first time.

The crowd at the Foro Italico, starved of an Italian quarter-finalist since Andrea Guadenzi seven years ago, roared their delight when Volandri, 21, became the first player to take a set off Federer, also 21, in nine matches on clay this year.

Another to reach the semi-finals was Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who since an operation on his left leg last year has had a new lease of life. He beat the huge-serving Dutchman Martin Verkerk 6-3, 7-5.