Capriati the Woman Most Likely to Upstage Sister Act

Jennifer Capriati politely denies the popular notion that she alone can break the duopoly of the Williams sisters at this year's championships.

But when she is asked about the other players out there her face hardens, as if Chris Tarrant has just posed the big one. She even comes up with Lindsay Davenport, who is not playing in this tournament, before mumbling something about "the Belgian girls" and "Daniela Hantuchova - when she comes into her own." Precisely.

Hantuchova, seeded 11, won impressively enough yesterday, beating Spain's Torrens Valero 6-2, 6-3, but the fact is that in the absence of Davenport and Martina Hingis, Capriati - who yesterday enjoyed a first round saunter in the sun against the Slovakian Janette Husarova - is realistically the only one who can knock down the pillars of the Williams sisters, who stand at the front of the women's game with six grand slam wins between them.

Capriati, though, might need her gleaming new red Ferrari, a present from her sponsors earlier this year, to finish the job.

To win the title and atone for a generally disappointing record here, she would probably have to beat both second seed Serena in the semi-final and then double champion Venus in the final.

The very least all Wimbledon is hoping for is that Capriati manages to spoil the chances of another sister act, for angst-ridden matches between the Williams girls have been about as exciting as watching Wimbledon's white lines dry.

Serena's semi-final defeat by Venus here two years ago was so dreadful that many suspected the younger sister had been ordered to lose.

Yesterday's win over Husarova, 6-1, 6-4, lasted just 56 minutes. Husarova, wearing a support for her right knee, is approaching 40 matches this year already and could be running out of puff. In reality, though, she was outclassed.

She is a hard-court specialist and there were times when one suspected that some of that clay had got in between her ears.

The drop shot, played from near the baseline, is a less potent weapon on grass, where the extra bounce makes it sit up to be hit. It was more of a drop point shot, along with the looping backhands which, after a brief period of uncertainty in the second set, were soon muscled away.

Capriati looked as though she would relish the opportunity to move into second gear and she had the chance to do so when Husarova broke to go 2-0 in the second. It was the first of five breaks, but ultimately Capriati won without staining her headband unduly.

"Quite a tough workout today," someone observed breezily. Capriati dredged up a watery smile. "Yeah, I'm glad to have gotten a match like that, where it wasn't easy. I really had to concentrate."

Capriati first played Wimbledon in 1990, when Stefan Edberg and Boris Becker were slugging it out for the men's title, and when a fresh-faced young man called Alec Stewart first played cricket for England. At 14 she became the youngest semi-finalist in the championships' history.

But for such a powerful player her record on these lawns is not a good one. There has been just one more semi-final appearance, last year, when she was surprisingly beaten by Justine Henin.

But Capriati represents the best story in the modern game, the girl who disappeared down a dark tunnel involving awful parental pressures, binge-eating, drug abuse and shoplifting.

After that little lot the daughters of Richard Williams appear less frightening. Capriati returned and dominated the first half of last year, winning the Australian and the French.

But at Roland Garros earlier this month Serena Williams beat her in the semi-finals, a match that suggested Capriati had some work to do on her serve.

"I haven't played Venus too much," she said. "But I've played Serena a lot and it's all been close matches. I was winning before. Now she's winning. There's a good rivalry."

The French champion Serena's opening win yesterday was even easier than Capriati's. Evie Dominikovic, the butcher's daughter from Sydney, was beaten 6-1, 6-1.

France's Mary Pierce, though, had an altogether tougher encounter. The former French and Australian champion completed her first grass-court victory for two years as she battled past Australian Alicia Molik 6-4, 4-6, 8-6.

Pierce, who missed the championships last year through injury, overcame a dogged opponent to win a fraught encounter on her sixth match point in two hours and six minutes.