Elena Dementieva outlasted Jennifer Capriati 6-0, 2-6, 7-6 (5) on Friday and set up an all-Russian women's final at the US Open.
In Saturday's championship match, Dementieva will meet Svetlana Kuznetsova, who became the first Russian woman to reach the final when she beat a limping Lindsay Davenport 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 and ruined the American's chance of regaining the Open title and world No. 1 ranking.
PHOTO: AP
"Russians are here," Kuznetsova said.
PHOTO: EPA
It will be the second all-Russian final at a major this year. Dementieva lost to Anastasia Myskina at the French Open, then Russian Maria Sharapova won Wimbledon.
The men's semis also will be Saturday, with No. 28 Joachim Johansson of Sweden against 2001 champion Lleyton Hewitt, and top-seeded Roger Federer taking on Tim Henman.
This marks the first time since 1988 that no Americans will be in the finals at this tournament.
After Davenport's demise on a strained hip, fans at Arthur Ashe Stadium clearly cheered for the New York-born Capriati to make the final for the first time.
"It's not easy to play Jennifer in New York," Dementieva said.
Dementieva hung on with 93kph serves and will get a chance to win her first major title. Capriati, winner of three Grand Slam events, fell to 0-4 in semifinals at the Open and sobbed in the locker room, comforted by her mother.
After the match, it was announced Dementieva pulled out of her doubles semifinal on Friday because of exhaustion. She played with her aching left thigh taped, and needed IV fluids after her three-set, tiebreaker victory over Amelie Mauresmo on Tuesday.
Both players did their best to psyche themselves up.
The sixth-seeded Dementieva shouted "Nyet!" after netting one of her shots, and later glared with ice-blue eyes at the chair umpire after a close -- but accurate -- call went against her.
Unlike in the quarters against Serena Williams, the eighth-seeded Capriati did not get the benefit of any blown calls. Still, she had sharp words for chair umpire Leanne White.
Early in the third set, White mistakenly announced the score at 30-all. When she corrected herself to say Dementieva led 40-15, Capriati approached and shouted, "You can't change it now!"
Assured by White that she could fix it, Capriati fired off a comeback that she punctuated with an expletive.
Wiped out in only 17 minutes in the opening set, Capriati fought back in the second set. She was still down 2-1 and seated during a changeover when a fan began shouting at her, perhaps offering advice.
"Shut up, I know what to do!" Capriati snapped back.
While Capriati walked off after her defeat, Davenport hobbled her way out of the Open, losing a big lead and able to do little but watch Kuznetsova win.
Davenport needed time before the last set to get treatment for a strained left hip, which she hurt during warmups about three hours before this semifinal.
"I was pretty bummed," she said. "I felt like I was playing from a disadvantage."
She came back on the court with tape high on her thigh, yet wore down after taking a 3-0 lead. Wincing and grimacing, she barely moved as the No. 9 Kuznetsova hit shots past her. The final point was an ace, and Davenport was caught standing still.
The loss snapped her 22-match winning streak and prevented her from rising to No. 1 in the WTA Tour rankings. Instead, Mauresmo will move up, just the second woman to reach the top without having won a Grand Slam title.
The fifth-seeded Davenport, the 1998 Open champion, drew a big ovation as she limped to the locker room after the match while Kuznetsova received polite applause.
At 28, Davenport was playing in her 16th Grand Slam semi and was trying to add another major title. She won at Wimbledon in 1999 and was the 2000 Australian Open champion.
Neither player had lost a set in this tournament until they traded one-sided victories.
In the second set, Davenport's injury worsened. And with the wind blowing at 27kph -- it was almost at 64kph the day before -- it caused her trouble.
Several times, Davenport had trouble adjusting when return shots got caught in a gust and moved either toward her or away at the last second.
"She seemed to play a lot better against the wind that I did," Davenport said.
All in due time, Lindsay Davenport will decide whether she wants retire. Only right now is not that time.
"I swear, it's so hard to answer that," she said after limping off from a 1-6, 6-2, 6-4 loss to Svetlana Kuznetsova in the US Open semifinals Friday.
"I mean some days, I'd like to. Other days, I don't want to. But maybe," she said. "It would be tough to walk away knowing that, `Oh, I still could have won a Slam,' or, `I was still at the top.'"
Davenport hurt her left hip while warming up Friday morning. After a fast start, the injury began to flare up and she struggled.
At 28, Davenport would have ascended to the top of the WTA Tour rankings by winning the Open. Instead, her 22-match winning streak came to an end -- she had won four straight tournaments leading up to this event.
Davenport is a three-time Grand Slam tournament champion and the 1996 Olympic gold medalist.
After Wimbledon, she said she planned to walk away from the sport after the season-ending championship in Los Angeles.
"I'm going to see how I feel in the next few weeks and how my body feels and mentally how I feel and what my motivation is," she said Friday.
"It's a full-time job and a lot of stress to always think, `OK, am I working out enough. Am I still getting better? Do I really feel like I can win?'" she said. "It will be nice to know when you get up one dat that it doesn't matter what I eat, doesn't matter what time I'm up. That will be nice. I don't know if that's going to be this fall or next year or two years."
Asked whether she'd be back at the Open, the 1998 champion said, "Probably not, but I hope to be."
"Twelve months is really far," she said.
Stormy weather
Mark Knowles did his best to concentrate on tennis Friday, a tough task considering the rough weather back home.
Knowles, from the Bahamas, and Daniel Nestor won their first US Open doubles title by beating Leander Paes and David Rikl 6-3, 6-3.
"I try to look at the overall perspective," Knowles said. "Obviously, from the Bahamas, we've been very lucky over the years. Unfortunately, that's part and parcel. If you live in the Caribbean, you've got to deal with hurricanes. We don't have to deal with earthquakes or anything like that.
"Where I'm from, Nassau, we actually were pretty fortunate in the last hurricane. But definitely my thoughts go out to the other islands. Freeport was devastated," he said.
Three recent hurricanes have swept through the Caribbean, and Knowles has had some property damage.
"But nothing that hasn't been replaceable, so I've been very fortunate," he said.
Knowles and Nestor, of Canada, also won the 2002 Australian Open. But they have lost six other Grand Slam finals, including at the 1998 US Open.
"We had a lot of heartbreak over the years, losing a lot of finals, so this feels really great: winning," Nestor said. "I had a lot of help from my partner. He played great."
Knowles and Nestor, seeded third, knocked off Olympic champion Nicolas Massu and Fernando Gonzalez in the quarterfinals. Paes and Rikl, seeded 13th, beat defending champions Jonas Bjorkman and Todd Woodbridge in the third round en route to reaching their first major final as a team.
Mixed doubles
Bob Bryan won his second straight US Open mixed doubles title, pairing this time with Vera Zvonareva to beat Alicia Molik and Todd Woodbridge 6-3, 6-4 in Friday's final.
Bryan, who plays Davis Cup doubles for the US with twin brother Mike, won last year's Open with Katarina Srebotnik. In 2002, Bob Bryan and Srebotnik lost in the final to Mike Bryan and Lisa Raymond.
Women's doubles
Too exhausted to play after beating Jennifer Capriati in the singles semifinals, Elena Dementieva pulled out of the women's doubles semifinals Friday at the US Open.
Dementieva and Ai Sugiyama were scheduled to face two-time defending champions Virginia Ruano Pascual and Paola Suarez. In the final, the top-seeded Ruano Pascual and Suarez will play second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena Likhovtseva.
Kuznetsova and Likhovtseva advanced by beating Barbara Schett and Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2.
Kuznetsova meets Dementieva for the singles title Saturday night.
Over for Scoville
Not only is this the first US Open since 1986 with no American man in the semifinals -- there aren't any Americans in the boys' semifinals, either.
Scoville Jenkins, seeded 10th after winning the USTA Boys' 18s National Championship, was eliminated in the quarterfinals Friday by No. 2 Andreas Beck of Germany 6-3, 7-6 (5). Jenkins lost to Andy Roddick in the first round of the main tournament.
Another US junior, Sam Querrey, was beaten by No. 3 Andrew Murray of Britain 2-6, 7-6 (2), 6-1.
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