Jennifer Capriati, Tennis Player, - Biography,
USA tennis player.
Height: 171 cm (5'7.5")
Weight: 72.5
kg (160 lb.)
Plays: Right
Turned pro: 1990
Highest singles ranking:
1 (2001-10-15)
Singles titles: 14
Grand Slam Record Titles: 3
Australian
Open W (2001, 2002)
French Open W (2001)
Wimbledon SF (1991, 2001)
U.S.
Open SF (1991, 2001, 2003-2004)
Jennifer Marie Capriati is a former world number
one women's tennis player from the United States. During her career, she has won
three Grand Slam singles titles (2 Australian Open, 1 French Open), as well as
the women's singles gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.
Capriati was introduced
to tennis while she was still a toddler by her father, Stefano Capriati, an Italian-American
former boxer turned tennis coach, who has continued to coach her in her later
professional career.
In 1986, when Jennifer's burgeoning tennis talent became
obvious, her family moved to Florida, where the ten-year-old player was enrolled
in an intense training program run by Jimmy Evert, the father of Chris Evert.
In
1989, Capriati served notice to the tennis world by becoming the youngest player
to win the French Open junior singles title at the age of 13 years & 2 months.
(The record stood until 1993, when it was broken by Martina Hingis who won the
title as a 12-year-old.) Capriati went on to win the junior singles title at the
1989 US Open & the junior doubles titles at both the US Open & Wimbledon
(partnering Meredith McGrath).
Capriati turned professional on March 5, 1990,
three weeks before her 14th birthday. In her debut tournament on the tour, at
Boca Raton, Florida, she defeated four seeded players on her way to becoming the
youngest-ever player to reach a tour final, where she lost 6-4, 7-5 to Gabriela
Sabatini. Despite the loss, the attention she got from her debut landed her on
the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week.
Three months later, she
became the youngest-ever semifinalist at the French Open (aged 14 years &
2 months), where she lost to the eventual champion, Monica Seles. Capriati reached
the fourth round at both Wimbledon & the US Open that year & won her first
professional singles title that October in San Juan, Puerto Rico. She finished
her first year on the tour ranked the World No. 8.
1991 saw Capriati reach
the semifinals at Wimbledon & the US Open. She became Wimbledon's youngest-ever
semifinalist after defeating the defending champion, Martina Navratilova in the
quarterfinals, forcing Navratilova's earliest Wimbledon exit in 14 years. Capriati
won two singles titles that year, as well as her first (and only) tour doubles
title (in Rome partnering Monica Seles).
The biggest moment of Capriati's early
career came in 1992, when she won the women's singles gold medal at the Olympic
Games in Barcelona. In the final, she defeated Steffi Graf (who was the gold medalist
four years earlier in Seoul) in three sets 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Despite her Olympic
triumph, it became clear to observers that Capriati was struggling to cope with
the pressures of playing at the top by the end of 1992. Her enjoyment of the game,
which she exuded when she first joined the tour, seemed to have drained away,
& her results started to suffer.
After some disappointing losses in 1993,
Capriati took a break from the tour to concentrate on her high school studies.
She soon ran into personal & legal troubles. She was involved in a shoplifting
incident in December 1993, & in May 1994, she was arrested for marijuana possession.
In November 1994, a return to the tour lasted just one match, which she lost to
Anke Huber in the first round. After that, she did not play on the tour for 15
months.
With her career seemingly in doubt, Capriati returned to the tour in
1996 & beginning a steady rise that would culminate in the World No. 1 ranking,
but not before several false starts. It was not until May 1999 that she finally
won her first tournament in six years, at Strasbourg.
In 2001, 11 years after
she had started playing on the tour, Capriati finally made her Grand Slam breakthrough.
She reached the final of the Australian Open against the then-World No. 1 player
Martina Hingis, & won in straight sets 6-4, 6-3. She followed up by capturing
the French Open title five months later, beating Kim Clijsters in a dramatic final
1-6, 6-4, 12-10. In October 2001, Capriati claimed the World No. 1 ranking.
Capriati
won her third Grand Slam title in 2002, when she successfully defended her Australian
Open crown. In the final against Hingis, Capriati was down 6-4, 4-0 but battled
back to win 4-6, 7-6, 6-2. She fought off 4 championship points during the final,
which is a record for most match points saved during a Grand Slam tournament final.
In
2003, Capriati reached the US Open semifinals, only to lose a classic match to
Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne in a third set tiebreak, with the final score
4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4). The battle concluded well past midnight & left Henin-Hardenne
needing medical attention due to dehydration & exhaustion. During the match,
Capriati was just two points from victory eleven times.
During her career,
Capriati has won 14 professional singles titles & 1 doubles title.
In January
2007, Capriati stated she had not given up hopes of a comeback at 30 after under
going arthroscopic surgery in 2005 & playing her last match in Philadelphia
in late 2004.
Accolades
In 2002, she received an ESPY for Comeback Player
of the Year. That year's nominees included such high profile talent as Mario Lemieux
& Michael Jordan.
In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 36th place in its
list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.
She looks
good in her physqique, I say. in her tennis clothes.
Grand Slam singles finals
Wins
(3)
Year Championship Opponent in Final Score in Final
2001 Australian Open
Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3
2001 French Open Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10
2002
Australian Open (2) Martina Hingis 4-6, 7-6, 6-2
Titles (14)
Singles (14)
Legend
Grand
Slam (3)
WTA Championships (0)
Olympic Gold (1)
Tier 1 Event (2)
WTA
Tour (8)
This site was written in February 2007
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