Henin shocks Capriati

Jennifer Capriati's Grand Slam dreams were shattered by Justine Henin in the Wimbledon semifinals on Thursday when the Belgian teenager staged a magnificent recovery to win 2-6, 6-4, 6-2.

Outplayed by the American fourth seed in the first set, the 19-year-old Henin came alive in the second after being treated courtside for blisters and her superlative backhand repeatedly blew holes in Capriati's defence.

Henin, the first Belgian woman to reach a Wimbledon final, broke Capriati's service to love twice early in the deciding set and then saved a break point to take a 4-0 lead as she outhit her powerful opponent from the baseline.

A short rain break at 4-1 in the decider threatened to disturb Henin's victory charge but she came back to win on her second match point.

Capriati, the Australian and French Open champion, was bidding to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1988 to win all four major titles in one calendar year.

In Saturday's final, Henin, seeded eighth, plays defending champion Venus Williams, who beat 1999 winner Lindsay Davenport 6-2, 6-7, 6-1 in the other semi-final.

Williams dominated the first and third sets of the replay of last year's all-American final, and wasted a match-point in the 10th game of the second set.

Davenport played quality tennis only in the latter half of that second set when she easily won the tiebreak.

Williams, watched by her father Richard, raced to a 4-1 lead in the first set, making few errors and dominating with her power and aggression, The second seed won it in 26 minutes on her fourth set point against a sluggish Davenport.

She raced to a 4-1 lead in the second but third seed Davenport suddenly raised her game, began to put pressure on her opponent for the first time and clawed her way back to 4-4.

A stream of classy backhands gave Williams her first match point leading 5-4 but she netted a service return. Williams's forehand began to go off the rails and Davenport raced through the tiebreak to win it on a double fault from the champion.

But Davenport again inexplicably lost her form. She failed to win a service game in the third set, went 5-1 down and lost when Williams dinked a volley past her at the net on her second match point.