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NEW YORK - Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce know all about the ups and downs of pro tennis.
Both have been Grand Slam tournament champions - more than once. Both have gone significant stretches without winning any sort of title (Capriati recently ended her 11/2-year drought; Pierce's dates to 2000). Both have been ranked highly and slipped out of the top 100.
Through it all, each kept her head up and slugged the ball.
Faced with a 5-1 third-set deficit Thursday at the U.S. Open against No. 22 seed Jelena Dokic, Pierce mustered just enough power and gumption to pull out a 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) victory and reach the third round on a day with a tournament-record total attendance of 56,183.
"I'm still not back to the level where I want to be. It's still a process for me," said Pierce, 28. "The fitness and my physical level are getting better, but it's not there yet. My legs kind of weren't there in the third set, so I just said, "Start going for your shots."'
Capriati didn't need that sort of self-encouragement later against Martina Sucha, winning 6-1, 6-1. The only games Capriati lost, curiously, were on her serve, and she helped out her opponent by double-faulting five times.
"I miss being at the top and playing good tennis," said Capriati, who won a tuneup event last week, her first title since the 2002 Australian Open. "A lot of it is being physically fit. When I'm not, I'm missing some of my confidence."
She was in control throughout Thursday, whipping deep strokes to compile a 28-4 edge in winners.
Andre Agassi also was in control. At 33 the oldest No. 1-ranked player in ATP Tour history, Agassi shrugged off an early challenge from Andreas Vinciguerra and put together a tidy 7-6 (7-1), 6-1, 6-4 victory.
Agassi next faces two-time major champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
According to Dokic, no one hits the ball harder than Pierce, who lives in Sarasota. Not Serena Williams. Not Kim Clijsters.
"Some of the shots she hit, I didn't see," Dokic said.
That might have been how Todd Martin felt as he tried to deal with French Open runner-up Martin Verkerk's serves, which consistently topped 130 mph.
But Martin, the 1999 U.S. Open runner-up, withstood the Dutchman's 26 aces - which were counterbalanced by 12 double faults - and held on to eliminate the 16th-seeded Verkerk 6-3, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 7-6 (9-7).
Dokic and Verkerk were among a sizable group of lower-seeded players exiting in second-round action Thursday, including No. 24 Mardy Fish of Tampa, knocked off by Karol Kucera 6-4, 7-6 (7-5), 6-4. No. 23 Wayne Ferreira was sent packing by American Robby Ginepri. Ginepri advanced to the third round of a major for the first time by beating Ferreira 6-2, 6-4, 6-7 (0), 6-2.
Seeded players advancing included major-title owners Justine Henin-Hardenne, Lleyton Hewitt and Juan Carlos Ferrero.
Another major-title owner, 46-year-old Martina Navratilova, teamed with Svetlana Kuznetsova to beat Jill Craybas and Conchita Martinez Granados 7-5, 6-2 in first-round women's doubles action. When they entered the court, Navratilova received a standing ovation from the near-capacity crowd. She smiled at the welcome, waved, then bowed.
Pierce made her Grand Slam breakthrough at the 1995 Australian Open, and she added a second major title at the 2000 French Open. But success at the latter stages of big tournaments has been fleeting of late, thanks largely to a hard-to-fathom litany of injuries: Back, shoulder, abdominal, ankle and groin ailments forced her off the tour for 10 months the past two seasons.
"When I won the French Open, I just felt like I was starting to scratch the surface of coming into myself and my potential and being the best that I can be," Pierce said.
"Then I had some injuries. I've been out for a while. So I just feel like I haven't really done everything that's in me to accomplish in tennis."
With her significant final-set deficit against Dokic, the 64th-ranked Pierce let instinct take over a bit. She reeled off five straight games to lead 6-5 in the last set. Dokic tied it with two second-serve aces.
Then, at 5-5 in the tiebreaker, Pierce smacked a cross-court backhand winner at a tough angle to get to match point. She raised both hands, threw her head back, and closed her eyes. Then she lifted her index fingers to the sky and said, "One more!"
She got that last point when Dokic floated a forehand wide.
Pierce was back on center court at a major, and she looked as if she belonged.
"I just tried to stay calm and just told my myself to fight. Just kept repeating that one word to myself," Pierce said. "You never know what can happen in tennis."
Yesterday's rising star turns into today's has-been, and Dokic could be treading that ground. She was a Wimbledon quarterfinalist at 16 and a semifinalist there at 17. Now 20, she entered the Open with a sub-.500 match record this year.
She has gone beyond the third round at just two of her past eight majors.
"Sometimes," Dokic said, "you need to really go down to come back up even stronger."
TARANGO RETIRES: Jeff Tarango joined Pete Sampras and Michael Chang in retirement at the U.S. Open.
Unlike those two, Tarango never won a Grand Slam title. His most infamous moment came at a major tournament, though. At Wimbledon in 1995, he stormed off the court during a third-round match, accusing the chair umpire of favoritism, and his wife slapped the official. Tarango was kicked out of the tournament that year and the next.
He leaves with two singles titles and 14 doubles titles.