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| Birth Name(s) : Jennifer Capriati |
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Full Jennifer Capriati Biography
Jennifer Marie Capriati (born March 29, 1976, in New York City) is a former World No. 1 women's tennis player from the United States. She won three Grand Slam singles titles (2001 and 2002 Australian Open, 2001 French Open), and 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 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 was enrolled in an intense training program run by Jimmy Evert, the father of Chris Evert.
Capriati turned professional on March 5, 1990, three weeks before her 14th birthday. In her debut tournament at Boca Raton, Florida, she defeated four seeded players while becoming the youngest-ever player to reach a tour final, where she lost 6-4, 7-5 to Gabriela Sabatini. Despite the loss, 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 and 2 months), where she lost to the eventual champion, Monica Seles. Capriati reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year and 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 and the U.S. Open. She became Wimbledon's youngest-ever semifinalist after defeating defending champion Martina Navratilova in the quarterfinals, which was Navratilova's earliest Wimbledon exit in 14 years. Capriati won two singles titles that year and her only tour doubles title (in Rome partnering with 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) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4.
Amid mounting pressures to live up to the expectations placed on her, and a first round loss to Leila Meshki at the 1993 U.S. Open, Capriati took a break from competitive tennis in late 1993. She soon ran into personal and legal troubles. She was involved in a shoplifting incident in December 1993, and in May 1994 was arrested for marijuana possession. In November 1994, Capriati attempted a return to the tour at a tournament in Philadelphia. The return lasted just one match, losing to Anke Huber in the first round. After that, she did not play on the tour for 15 months. Her arrests and associated mugshot made her "the poster child for burned-out sports prodigies," to quote the Chicago Sun-Times.
With her career seemingly in doubt, Capriati returned to the tour in February 1996 and began 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.
Nearly 11 years after she had started playing on the tour, Capriati finally made her Grand Slam breakthrough. From having gone as long as five years without winning a singles match at a Grand Slam, Capriati, the 12th seed, captured the 2001 Australian Open title, defeating then-World No. 1 player Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3. Along the way, she defeated then-World No. 4 Monica Seles in the quarterfinals and then-World No. 2 Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals. Capriati followed up by capturing the French Open title five months later, beating Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10. She reached the semifinals of both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year as well, amassing the best Grand Slam singles record for the year. 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 saved 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 U.S. Open semifinals, losing a close match to Belgium's Justine Henin in a third set tiebreak 4-6, 7-5, 7-6(4). The battle concluded well past midnight and left Henin needing medical attention due to dehydration and exhaustion. During the match, Capriati was just two points from victory eleven times.
In January 2007, Capriati stated she had not given up hopes of a comeback at 30 after under going arthroscopic surgery in 2005 and playing her last match in Philadelphia in late 2004.
In 2002, she received an ESPY for Comeback Player of the Year. That year's nominees included such high profile talent as Mario Lemieux and Michael Jordan.
SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played |
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