By Steven Wine
The Associated Press

KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. - Jennifer Capriati toed the baseline, bounced the ball, tossed it skyward and gave her resolve a test. She passed. With four consecutive solid serves, Capriati won the final game at love to close out a marathon victory over Meghann Shaughnessy, 4-6, 7-6 (5), 6-4, in the Nasdaq-100 Open.

"I remember other matches where I've been up like that, serving for it, and I've lost it and lost the match," Capriati said. "So I'm proud of myself for coming through at that point."

The victory Wednesday advanced the sixth-seeded Capriati to the semifinals Thursday night against No. 12 Chanda Rubin, who upset No. 4 Justine Henin-Hardenne 6-3, 6-2. Top-seeded Serena Williams was to play No. 3 Kim Clijsters in the other semifinal.

On the men's side, No. 5 Carlos Moya earned his first semifinal berth at Key Biscayne, winning the final five points to edge American wild-card entrant Robby Ginepri 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-6 (4). Moya's opponent Friday will be No. 13 Paradorn Srichaphan, who beat Todd Martin 6-3, 6-7 (5), 7-5.

An unsteady serve, particularly under pressure, has long been the biggest flaw in Capriati's game. But she held her final five service games against Shaughnessy, losing only four points.

"I'm just putting more time into practicing my serve, so it becomes automatic instead of me getting into that situation and getting off rhythm just thinking about it," Capriati said.

She'll likely need to be at her best against Rubin, who moved into the top 10 last week for the first time since October 1996. Rubin won their two most recent meetings, but those matches were in 2000, before Capriati staged a career comeback from drug and personal problems.

"Any time you look at a player who has won three Grand Slams since you last played them, there's going to be a difference in terms of how they see themselves," Rubin said.

Rubin is enjoying a comeback of her own. Since reaching the final at Key Biscayne in 1996, she has undergone two operations on her knee and one on her wrist. She slipped out of the top 50 in 2001 but won two tournaments last year, and at 27 she's playing some of her best tennis.

"It hasn't been anything spectacular, but I feel like I've slowly gotten better," Rubin said. "I feel like I can win any tournament I go into."

Only Rubin separates Capriati from a third consecutive trip to the Key Biscayne final. She was the runner-up to Venus Williams in 2001 and to Serena Williams in 2002.

After beating Shaughnessy, Capriati was in a winning mood.

"A great win for myself, so I'm pretty happy about that," she said. "But besides just playing well, just in general, yeah, I feel good about myself."

Left to stew was Shaughnessy, who eliminated three-time champion Venus Williams in the fourth round but lost too many pivotal points against Capriati.

"I was actually frustrated through most of the match," said Shaughnessy, seeded No. 23. "I had the chance and didn't take it."

Besides notching a narrow victory, Capriati defused a couple of minor controversies.

She said she didn't hold a grudge about comments Shaughnessy made last year after Capriati was dismissed from the U.S. Fed Cup team last year. And she decided not to have the Outkast song "Bombs Over Baghdad" played in the stadium during her warmup after her choice of the rap tune for her previous match drew considerable publicity.

"It was just made into being a big deal," she said. "I just said, `Forget about it."'

Instead, U2's inspirational "Walk On" accompanied Capriati's warmup against Shaughnessy.

When Capriati was kicked off the Fed Cup team last year in a bitter dispute over practice rules, an outspoken Shaughnessy sided with U.S. captain Billie Jean King. But Capriati and Shaughnessy shook hands after their match and showed no hint of lingering hard feelings.

Said Capriati: "Water under the bridge."