WOMEN'S SINGLES: If they had the technology to speed up this match and crush it into a package of just a few jarring seconds, it would surely reconfigure into a car-crash sequence writes Johnny Watterson at Wimbledon.
Serena Williams would step out of it unscathed, Jennifer Capriati stretchered away to tennis ER.
A full Centre Court, shot with the anticipation of seeing these two American iconic tennis figures play each other for a place in the semi-final, turned into a grisly post mortem of Capriati's stellar collapse and Williams soaring game.
Watching was like slowing down at the scene of an accident, not wanting to see anything too horrific but magnetically drawn to the extreme event.
Capriati had won the last two outings in Rome and at the French Open but Williams had dominated their meetings in a streak that ran from Toronto in 2001 up the 2003 Wimbledon quarter-final.
Traditionally, their matches have been close, 10 of their last 12 meetings going to three sets. Not yesterday. Williams single-minded aggression confined the seventh seed to two games for 6-1, 6-1, in 45 minutes, the first set 23 minutes, the second just 60 seconds longer.
The players' rivalry stretches as far back as the 1999 German Open but never before has the younger Williams so dominated a match. None of their previous 15 meetings comes remotely close to this score line.
"I would say that today is one of the best (games) she's ever played against me," said Capriati. "I was feeling so much pressure from her coming off the baseline. Basically, her plan was to tee-off on everything. I just couldn't even get the rallies going."
What that says for Amelie Mauresmo's (so far) healthy pursuit for a place in the final will be seen today.
Mauresmo took flight in her first set against Argentinian ninth-seed Paola Suarez, winning the first set 6-0, to set up what appeared to be as smooth a path as that which Williams had taken. But the 28-year-old, brought up on the endurance clay-court South American scene, battled for the second set and took it 7-5 before Mauresmo again found a higher gear, belting out the set 6-1. The win leaves three nationalities in the semi-finals. France faces America in one, while Russian teenage starlet Maria Sharapova plays the USA's doyenne, Lindsay Davenport, in the other.
But the new agenda, or, rather the old agenda brought more sharply into focus, is whether any of the remaining three players can beat Williams in such imperious form.
"What I just tried to do was really come out strong and smokin'. I was able to retrieve a lot of balls she really hit deep, able to get them back. I was really wanting to stay focused out there because I know she's the type of player that never gives up and she'll want to try and come back," said Williams, who faces Mauresmo with no lack of confidence. Asked if she had any self doubts, Williams was, well, without doubt.
"No, I try not to doubt myself when I'm on the court at all," she replied.
Williams has played the French fourth seed eight times in the past five years and won seven of them, Mauresmo's lone win coming in Rome last year on clay. A few weeks later, Williams had her revenge.
"I'm enjoying this week," said Mauresmo again. "I think I shall have some fun." For her that means more than it seems.
