Her U.S. Open dream dead again, Jennifer Capriati grabbed her bag moments after her stunning collapse at Ashe Stadium and marched toward the exit, head down.

Without looking up to the Flushing crowd still cheering her despite the sudden ouster, she flashed a quick wave. As quick as her Open run that ended in yesterday’s quarterfinals.

When a drawn-looking Capriati got to the interview room following the three-set 4-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-3 loss to Amelie Mauresmo, she looked like she already had a good cry.

Repeatedly, Capriati talked about being “really nervous and tight,” especially when she served for the match at 6-5 in the second set.

“It’s probably just a lot of expectation, pressure that I put on myself, it just came through,” she said.

When someone asked if she felt she choked, Capriati said, “I think getting tight is basically saying you choked.”

“It hurts, it definitely hurts,” Capriati added. “I had that match. There’s a lot of expectations, a lot of pressure I put on myself – a new pressure I’ve felt coming off being No. 1. It’s something I have to go and look at.”

Born in Brooklyn, raised in Garden City until moving to Florida at five, an Open title would be the final piece to her comeback. A semifinalist last year, the third-seeded Capriati, who has won three Grand Slams the last 1½ years, loomed as the best chance to break up an all-Williams final Saturday night.

“She still considers herself a New Yorker,” Capriati’s father Stefano told The Post. “She wants this very much. It means a lot to her – as an American, not just a New Yorker.”

And everything was on pace late in the second set. Capriati broke Mauresmo’s serve at 5-5 and served for the match at 6-5. But something didn’t feel right inside Capriati on this humid afternoon.

Mauresmo broke back to make it 6-6 and Capriati folded in the tiebreaker, wracked by unforced errors, bringing on a third set.

“I think even from the beginning, I wasn’t playing with the same kind of loose shots,” Capriati said. “I think I came out and I was pretty nervous. I felt kind of tight out there throughout the whole match, even though I won the first set.”

At 4-3 in the tiebreaker, Capriati banged a forehand deep, then hit a shortball into the net to make it 6-4, double-set point. Capriati saved one set point, but at 6-5, Mauresmo ran Capriati ragged, forayed in and put away a backhand volley.

After coming into the Open slimmer and fitter than she’d been all year, Capriati leaves confused.

“I really felt I had been playing good tennis and had a great chance to win,” Capriati said. “Now you got to go back to the drawing board and see ‘Why didn’t I win this match?'”

Mauresmo, who had beaten Capriati in the Wimbledon quarters, is projected to play Venus Williams in tomorrow’s semifinals. Mauresmo’s 0-4 lifetime against the two-time defending champion as she competes in her first Open semifinal.

Mauresmo didn’t back off prior remarks that the Williams’ domination isn’t healthy for women’s tennis.

“To me, people are maybe gonna get bored of always seeing the same final. It gets a bit irritating because you want to go out there and try to beat these guys,” Mauresmo said.