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Wednesday, November 19, 2003
Capriati wins a major, finally
By Bob Carter
Special to ESPN.com
Signature Match
Jan. 27, 2001 - How long the wait, how sweet the opportunity.
Jennifer Capriati, 24, has generated a comeback from a troubled past to reach the championship match of the Australian Open, her first Grand Slam final. The former teen sensation upset four-time champion Monica Seles and defending titlist Lindsay Davenport to earn a meeting with Martina Hingis.
Capriati wasted no time establishing control, taking a 4-0 lead. She won the first set 6-4, went up 5-3 in the second and closed out her victory with a strong backhand return, her 20th winner of the match.
Capriati, who overcame a drug arrest, a rocky relationship with her father/coach and long layoffs from competition, jumped in celebration. Her professional journey, which began with her joining the women's tour at 13, was fulfilled.
"I got the chills," she said. "I just thought, 'Wow, the moment has finally come.' Now I can enjoy it."
Odds 'n' Ends
Capriati's parents, who divorced in 1996, were both club tennis players. Denise, her mother, was playing tennis just 17 hours before Jennifer's birth.
When Jennifer was a few months old, her father Stefano had her doing sit-ups by a placing a pillow underneath her tiny body and then gently pulling her up and pushing her back down.
At 13, Capriati teamed with Meredith McGrath to win the Wimbledon and U.S. Open junior doubles titles in 1989.
In December 1989, three months before her professional debut, she signed an endorsement deal with Diadora for an estimated $3 million.
When she turned pro, she was a straight-A student in the eighth grade at Palmer Academy.
Capriati's first pro match was a 7-6 (7-1), 6-1 victory over Mary Lou Daniels at the Virginia Slims of Florida in Boca Raton on March 6, 1990.
Her first pro tournament title came in October 1990, when she beat Zina Garrison in the final of the Puerto Rico Open.
She won the 1990 WTA Tour's Most Impressive Newcomer Award after winning one title and $283,597.
After beating Martina Navratilova in the 1991 Wimbledon quarterfinals at 15, she said: "There was no pressure on me. No one expected me to win."
Pam Shriver thinks a turning point for Capriati was the loss to Monica Seles at the 1991 U.S. Open, in which the younger teen twice served for the match. Said Shriver: "The questions for Capriati afterward, at age 15, were: 'Did you choke? Why did you choke?' I saw a steady decline from that point onward."
In 1991, her second year as a pro, she earned about $6 million in tournaments and endorsements.
As a teenager, Capriati was a heavy metal music fan who loved Guns N' Roses.
At Zurich in 1996, she beat Gabriela Sabatini in the Argentine's last singles match before retiring.
Capriati won her first title in six years when she took the 1999 Strasbourg tour event. She also won in Quebec City that year.
After losing to Seles in the 1999 U.S. Open's third round, she broke down in a news conference while discussing her troubled past.
In late 2000, Capriati got in the best shape of her life by working with fitness trainer Karen Burnett, doing running, cycling and Tae Bo. "It's one thing to hit the ball well," she said. "It's another thing to know you can keep it up as long as the match goes on."
In the first half of 2001, Capriati defeated the No. 1-ranked Hingis three
times -- at the Australian Open, Family Circle Cup and French Open.
Steven Capriati, her younger brother, is on the University of Arizona tennis team.
Jennifer lives at the Saddlebrook resort in Florida, where she spent much of her childhood.
In 2002, Capriati was kicked off the U.S. Federation Cup team by captain
Billie Jean King after she violated team practice rules and cursed King.
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