Capriati to get serious after third round scare

Jennifer Capriati has been swimming with dolphins at the Sea Aquarium, racing around Miami in her new Ferrari and spotted in the company of television star Matthew Perry this week.

But after clawing her way into the fourth round of the Nasdaq-100 Open Masters Sunday with a 3-6 7-5 6-2 win over Russia's Anastasia Myskina, the world number one admitted it was time to start thinking about tennis.

"Yeah, it's time to start playing some tennis now," Capriati said.

And if the Australian Open champion needed any added incentive to raise her game a notch, she only has to look at the performances of her chief rivals; defending champion Venus Williams, her sister Serena and third seed Martina Hingis, who all strolled into the fourth round with a minimum of fuss.

Venus Williams, who surrendered the number one ranking to Capriati last Monday, has given every indication she intends to reclaim top spot.

The Wimbledon and U.S. Open champion was well on her way to a comfortable win over Mariana Dias-Oliva when the Argentinean was forced to retire from the match from the third round match with a strained back and the American leading 6-2 1-0.

"I love winning but I would like to have won the whole match and not by retiring," said Williams, a three-time winner of the Miami Masters." But that's how it is sometimes."

Hingis, the third seed, also has her eye on a third Miami title and reclaiming the number one ranking she held for 209 weeks.

The Swiss was again at her ruthless best against Tatiana Poutchek destroying the Belarussian 6-0 6-1.

IMPRESSIVE SERENA

Equally impressive was eighth seed Serena Williams 6-1 6-0 dissection of Katarina Srebotnik, sweeping past the Slovenian wildcard in just 46 minutes.

"I think I've played plenty already this year so far so it's kind of nice to have matches like this coming into the tougher rounds," said Hingis, who has dropped just two games on way to the fourth round. "Plus I'm playing doubles here with Anna so I think I'm getting enough match time.

"If I play like this it's very uplifting.

"It gives me confidence that I will be able to play like this in the bigger matches."

Fourth seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters and fifth seed Monica Seles also moved smoothly into round four.

Clijsters, who lost her opening match at Indian Wells where she was the top seed, has been back on form registering tidy 6-4 6-4 win over Argentina's Paola Suarez while fifth seed Monica Seles dispatched American compatriot Samantha Reeves 6-3 6-2.

Seventh seed Jelena Dokic was the third round's biggest casualty falling 6-3 6-1 to Luxembourg's Anne Kremer.

The victory was Kremer's third in four meetings with the Yugoslav and the second in as many tournaments having knocked the world number eight out at the same stage at Indian Wells last week.