Ivanisevic reaches finals for 3rd time

Goran Ivanisevic squandered two match points in the fourth set, then outlasted Richard Krajicek 15-13 in a marathon fifth set today to reach the Wimbledon final.

Ivanisevic put on an animated display after winning 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 6-7 (7-5), 15-13 in a match that lasted 3 hours, 22 minutes, with the final set alone going 1:19.He fell to his knees, tapped the grass with his hand and held his clenched fists in the air when Krajicek netted a backhand volley to end the match in the 28th game of the final set.

The Croatian ripped off his bandana, tossed two towels into the stands, clapped to the crowd and held up his left index finger in a No. 1 salute as he walked off the Centre Court.

Ivanisevic reached the final for the third time, having lost in the 1992 and 1994 championship matches. He has never won a Grand Slam title and came into this tournament after winning only one match in his five previous Slam events.

The 14th-seeded Croatian will face the winner of the second semifinal between defending champion Pete Sampras and Britain's Tim Henman.

The women's final is set for Saturday. The two finalists are among the oldest players on the tour - 30-year-old Nathalie Tauziat and 29-year-old Jana Novotna. Together, they represent the oldest Wimbledon finalists since Betty Stove and Virginia Wade in 1977.

"Sometimes it seems like the older the better," said Hingis, outplayed by Novotna in straight sets in Thursday's semifinals. "If you see Tauziat on the other side in the finals, it's amazing. I hope it's going to be like that with me also. The smarter, the cleverer, the better."

It's the second Grand Slam tournament in a row where the youngsters have been upstaged. At the French Open last month, the finalists were relative oldtimers Arantxa Sanchez Vicario (27) and Monica Seles (24).

Hingis, 17, was the only teenager to get as far as the Wimbledon semifinals. Kournikova, 17, missed the tournament with a thumb injury; Lucic, 16, lost in the second round; Serena Williams, 16, went out in the third, and Venus Williams, 18, departed in the quarters.

"It doesn't really matter how old you are," Novotna said. "The most important is how you feel. I have been working really hard."

Sampras, who hasn't dropped a set all tournament, is seeking his fifth title in six years, while Henman can become the first British player to reach the men's final since 1938.