Seles into final as Mauresmo is forced to quit

Monica Seles and Justine Henin-Hardenne will contest the women's singles final at the Dubai Duty Free Open today, where the spotlight will be shared with the 46-year-old Martina Navratilova, who hopes to win the 168th women's doubles title of her career.

In the semi-finals yesterday, Seles, the fourth seed, advanced at the expense of Amélie Mauresmo, the defending champion and second seed, who retired after aggravating an injury to her right thigh with Seles leading, 6-3, 2-2. Henin-Hardenne, the top seed, overcame a spirited Jennifer Capriati, 7-5. 4-6, 6-4. Navratilova and her Russian partner, Svetlana Kuznetsova, defeated Maria Vento-Kabchi, of Venezuela, and Angelique Widjaja, of Indonesia, 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.

Although Navratilova, the elder stateswoman of women's tennis, enjoys trading shots with the latest generation of players, especially as she only has to cover half the court, she made the point that the loss to the sport of Martina Hingis at 22 had reinforced her objections to players starting the WTA Tour too young.

"We've seen it with [Andrea] Jaeger, we've seen it with Tracy Austin, and now with Hingis, said Navratilova, who warned in 1994 that Hingis was too young for the Tour at 14. "All these 'phenoms' are fantastic," she added. "They're great players at 16, but why push it? Why not wait a few more years?

"When I played my very first event I was 16 and a half, and I played in the United States. I pulled a stomach muscle because I was trying to serve and volley harder than I ever had in my life. I won the qualifying, I won a round, I got to the quarters, I put on a great showing, but then the next five weeks I was injured with a pulled stomach muscle. And I was strong.

"It's just putting more stress on the body before it's fully-formed. Obviously the joints and the bones are still growing, and joints have to suffer. And we've just seen it too much. Jaeger had the shoulder, Tracy had a bad back, now Hingis's feet. It's obviously all over the place, and it's too bad, really. If I had a kid, I would definitely hold her back."

Seles's semi-final against Mauresmo, a repeat of their match here at the same stage last year which the Frenchwoman won in straight sets, promised to develop into a memorable contest in spite of the blustery, humid and overcast conditions. Both players hit spectacular winners, but Mauresmo's serve let her down at critical moments.

Her movements became laboured in the second set, and she took an injury time-out when leading 2-1. Seles was forced to save a break point in the fourth game, which ended with Mauresmo netting a forehand return and conceding the match after 63 minutes.

Capriati came back strongly after losing the opening set against Henin-Hardenne, but the Belgian player made the decisive break in the sixth game of the final set, and won on her fourth match point. Although disappointed at losing, Capriati can leave Dubai in good heart after winning her first matches of the year.

Tim Henman was due here shortly before midnight last night to continue his comeback from shoulder surgery. The British No 1, who lost to Ivan Ljubicic, of Croatia, in Rotterdam on Tuesday in his first match for 15 weeks, plays in next week's men's Dubai Open.

"It will be nice to have the sun on my back and play outdoors again," Henman said on his website before leaving London. "My game is suited to hard courts where the ball bounces quite high, and Dubai is no exception. I think the conditions suit my game very well so I'm really looking forward to it."