New York, Aug 31: Sixth seed Jennifer Capriati had to survive a scare before reaching the fourth round of the US Open. The American struggled before defeating France's Emilie Loit 6-2 2-6 6-2. The three-time Grand Slam winner will now play 11th seed Elena Dementieva of Russia on Monday for a quarter-final spot.
Dementieva needed two tie-breaks to beat Amy Frazier 7-6 7-6. Loit, who was two points from knocking eventual winner Serena Williams out of the Australian Open in the first round in January, won the second set from Capriati in just 28 minutes, taking full advantage of 13 unforced errors.
"I lost my focus in the second set and she started playing a lot better," Capriati said.

"I was just more patient in the third set and I handled her slice a little better. She's tough to play. She doesn't give you any pace at all to play off."

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Loit broke Capriati to open the third set, but Capriati broke back immediately and raced to a 5-1 lead before Loit broke again.

Capriati then took three match points on Loit's serve and needed them all, finally escaping after 86 minutes when Loit sliced a backhand wide.

There were no scares for French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne who cruised past Japan's Saori Obata 6-1 6-2.

The second seed from Belgium will play Russia's Dinara Safina, the younger sister of 2000 US Open men's champion Marat Safin, for a place in the quarter-finals after winning in just 56 minutes.

Mary Pierce continued her good run at Flushing Meadows with a straight sets win over Japan's Shinobu Asagoe.

The turning point of the match came at 5-4 in the opening set with Asagoe serving to stay in the set.

Pierce broke her with some aggressive play and then totally dominated her opponent in the second set.
She built up a comfortable advantage, breaking Asagoe twice and sealed victory with a neat serve and volley.
Bureau Report