Serena's slide is sign of the times for women

It's a measure of how fluid women's tennis has become that Serena Williams - who won four Grand Slam titles in a row before injury struck - is about to drop out of the world's top 10 for the first time since 1999.

Serena's fall from grace is a result of her failure to last the course at the French Open where former champion Jennifer Capriati was due to face Russia's Anastasia Myskina in the semifinals today and Argentina's Paola Suarez was set to meet Elena Dementieva, another Russian.

Both Serena and sister Venus came into this Slam without the fitness or court time to survive on clay where endless rallies take a toll.

Capriati is in her 12th Grand Slam semi-final, and the fact her right hamstring is heavily strapped suggests that a quick straight sets victory is the order of the day. Given that the seventh seed likes to play at a break-neck pace - even on clay - it will be interesting to see how sixth seed Myskina tries to slow things down on centre court.

The 22-year-old Russian is making her Slam semi-final debut, having accounted for an error-ridden Venus in the quarter-finals.

Capriati missed the Australian Open due to a back injury she sustained last November. Since returning to action, the 2001 French Open champion has started working with Heinz Gunthardt, who was Steffi Graf 's coach during her domination of the sport.

The American still has the close support of her father, who will be in the crowd, yelling for a player who has enjoyed a roller-coaster career and is now back near the very top. She said: "When you work with someone for so long, like my dad, you just kind of stop looking at things in your game as important. When someone new comes in, you just open your ears a little bit more to what they are saying."

Capriati has a 5-1 career record against Myskina and is favourite to make it into her second Paris final where the opponent is likely to be Dementieva, who beat France's Amelie Mauresmo in the quarter-finals.

The ninth seed takes on 14th seed Suarez, who has proved that Argentine women can also get into the Roland Garros semi-finals as well as their men.

Dementieva has won two of the three previous matches with Suarez, although the Argentinian can take heart from the fact she won the only clash on clay.