Capriati warms up for more challenging tests

Serving notice: American No 3 seed strolls to victory over Slovakian opponent as Serena Williams brushes aside Australian in straight sets

Jennifer Capriati owns a "dream car", a red Ferrari given to her by her sponsors to celebrate her birthday and to remind her of the astonishing achievements of last year, when she won Grand Slams in Australia and at Roland Garros and made the semi-finals here and at the US Open.

As a symbol of the 26-year-old's renaissance, it is fitting. Though her lines may not be quite as sleek as her motor's and her acceleration a touch less fierce, she is undoubtedly a premium property. She showed so again yesterday, albeit against a lowly opponent, when completing a straightforward first-round win, 6-1, 6-4, over Janette Husarova of Slovakia, ranked 38 places below her at No 41 in the world.

The first set was a formality, the second more testing with Husarova producing a series of looped backhands and dropshots. "Not too many players play like her," Capriati said afterwards. "You don't know what to expect. She plays that dinky kind of tennis."

Not dinky enough, however, and Capriati prevailed with no real trouble. "It was a good match, especially in the second set," she said. "I'm glad to have gotten a match like that where it wasn't too easy." In other words, it warmed the engine, in preparation for the real race ahead.

Whether that will be a truly open contest, or simply a case of Capriati nipping between the twin juggernauts of the women's game, otherwise known as the Williams sisters, remains to be seen. Serena Williams set off on her own collision course with her elder sister yesterday, brushing aside Evie Dominikovic of Australia in straight sets, 6-1, 6-1 in 42 minutes. The odds on her winning that match before it started were 100-1 on.

Venus, who starts the defence of her title against Britain's Jane O'Donoghue this afternoon, is expected to be troubled slightly less today. One bookmaker has her at 200-1 on. Rarely, if ever, has any two-horse race in the history of sport been called as such a mismatch.

With such uneven contests commonplace, even after the early stages of major women's events, it is obvious that only a handful of players are in with a real chance of victory. Venus and Serena are two of them, Capriati a third. Many observers think the trio only have each other to worry about here. Capriati disagrees.

"You never know what's going to happen, especially on this surface," she said. "We're favoured to win but I think there are a lot of other good players that have a chance. And they don't want to see the Williams sisters or me up there just dominating the sport."

Real domination, Capriati said, was found in the heydays of Steffi Graf and Martina Hingis, when hardly anyone else got a look in. Asked to nominate others who could challenge herself and the Williams sisters, she listed Monica Seles and "the Belgian girls", Kim Clijsters and Justine Henin. They are ranked, respectively, No 4, No 5 and No 6 in the world and it will be a substantial upset if one of the sextet does not win here.

Such are the assumptions that the Williams sisters will walk through the early stages that their post-match press conferences tend not even to dwell on the tennis. Yesterday Serena was not asked a single question about her match, but a stream about her fame, her Grand Slam ambitions and her sister. After musing on the relative merits of various disguises (for the record, she finds that "a scarf and sunglasses works better than a hat and sunglasses"), she also talked about her desire to triumph in SW19.

"I was so young when I won the US Open [in 1999]. Obviously that was a special moment for me. And the French [which she won this year], it was an unbelievable win for me because I overcame a lot of stuff in that tournament... I really want to win Wimbledon this year because Venus has won it two years in a row, and to see those little plates in our little trophy area, I want one of those with my name on it. To hold the plate with all the history behind it, I would just love to do this."

For many other players, such aspirations are beyond reality. They range from the likes of Anna Kournikova, whose defeat yesterday means her lengthy wait for a singles title creeps ever onwards, to those of even more exalted status, such as Nicole Pratt of Australia, the No 31 seed here. Playing in her 29th Grand Slam event, she exited before the third round for the 27th time. Pointing out as much is not to demean her journeyman efforts, merely to highlight that titles, and Ferraris, are still the preserve of a chosen few.