Williams will play the winner of Friday's second semifinal between her older sister Venus and second seed Jennifer Capriati Saturday night in the first prime time telecast of an Open Championship final. If Venus Williams also wins Friday, it would be the first time in the Open Era (since 1968) that two sisters would meet in a Grand Slam final. In 1884, Maud Watson defeated her sister, Lilian, 6-8, 6-3, 6-3, for the first Wimbledon women's championship.

Serena Williams used her superior speed and power to crush Hingis. Williams broke Hingis' serve on all five of her break opportunities and allowed Hingis to hold serve only three times in the match. Williams hammered out 40 winners, including 10 aces, and made only 10 unforced errors in becoming the first No. 10 seed to reach the women's final. Hingis, forced to play on the defensive most of the afternoon, managed only five winners and made eight unforced errors. She had no aces and double faulted twice.

Williams broke Hingis on her first service game for a 2-0 lead but Hingis managed to break right back. That was virtually her last positive effort in the match as Williams rolled off three consecutive games. Hingis broke once again to cut it to 5-3 but Williams closed out the first set in only 25 minutes with a forehand winner up the line.

Hingis held her first two serves of the second set but Williams broke again at love to go up, 3-2, and held at love for a 4-2 lead. Hingis appeared disheartened at this point and Williams continued to apply the pressure, breaking again for a 5-2 lead and closing out the match with a service winner.

Hingis has managed to cling to her No. 1 ranking despite not winning a Grand Slam title in nearly three years. She now has gone 11 Grand Slam tournaments without a victory. She will lose it if Capriati defeats Venus Williams.

Capriati, who has resurrected her career this year by winning the Australian and French Open titles, will play fourth seed and defending champion Venus Williams in the second round. Venus Williams and Capriati have won the last five Grand Slam tournament titles, with Williams taking back-to-back Wimbledon championships and the 2000 U.S. Open and Capriati capturing her two Grand Slam events.

Serena Williams had a thrilling three-set win over former champion Lindsay Davenport in the quarterfinals and was laying in her first Grand Slam semifinal since losing to older sister Venus at Wimbledon last year.

Hingis, who lost to Serena Williams in the 1999 Open final, was appearing in her sixth straight U.S. Open semifinal, having won the title in 1997. After a scare in the third round when she pulled out a third-set tiebreak against Iva Majoli, Hingis had lost a total of six games in two matches.

Hingis was 6-4 lifetime against Serena Williams, winning their last three encounters, all on hard courts. In January, Hingis outdueled Williams, 6-2, 3-6, 8-6, in the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.

Venus Williams, seeded fourth, has rolled through the draw as she attempts to become the first player since Steffi Graf in 1995-96 to win back-to-back Wimbledon and U.S. Open titles in consecutive years. She has dropped a total of 24 games in five matches en route to her sixth semifinal appearance in eight Grand Slam events.

It has been 10 years since Capriati advanced to the U.S. Open semifinals as a 15-year-old. This year, a more mature and focused Capriati has provided one of the most inspirational comeback stories in sports by capturing the Australian and French Open titles.

Capriati, seeded second, had her 19-match Grand Slam winning streak come to an end at Wimbledon with her loss to Justine Henin of Belgium in the semifinals. But she has rebounded here by not losing a set and is the only woman to reach all four Grand Slam semifinals in 2001.

Venus Williams has won all three previous meetings with Capriati, including twice this year on hard courts. In the final at Miami, Williams fought off eight match points before beating Capriati. Two of the three matches have gone three sets and three of the eight sets played have been tiebreaks.

The men's semi-finals will be played Saturday. Four-time champion Pete Sampras of the United States will go against Marat Safin of Russia, who defeated Sampras in the 2000 final, in one and Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia will oppose Lleyton Hewitt of Australia in the other.

The men's final will be played Sunday.

The 14th seeded team of Wayne Black and Kevin Ullyett of Zimbabwe upset second seeds Don Johnson and Jared Palmer of the United States, 7-6 (11-9), 2-6, 6-3, Friday to win the men's double championship. Black and Ullyett broke to go up, 5-3 in the third set and served out the match. Black and Ullyett share first prize money of $350,000.