Jennifer Capriati

Country	United States
Residence	Wesley Chapel, Florida, U.S.
Date of birth	March 29, 1976 (1976-03-29) (age 33)
Place of birth	New York City
Height	5' 7" (1.70 m)
Weight	160 lb (73 kg)
Turned pro	March 5, 1990
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career prize money	US$10,206,639
Singles
Career record	430–176
Career titles	14
Highest ranking	No. 1 (October 15, 2001)
Grand Slam results
Australian Open	W (2001, 2002)
French Open	W (2001)
Wimbledon	SF (1991, 2001)
US Open	SF (1991, 2001, 2003, 2004)
Major tournaments
Olympic Games	Gold medal (1992)
Doubles
Career record	66–50
Career titles	1
Highest ranking	No. 28 (March 2, 1992)
Last updated on: February 5, 2007.

Olympic medal record
Women's Tennis
Competitor for  United States
Gold	1992 Barcelona	Singles

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 has 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 has won 14 professional singles titles and one doubles title.

[edit] Introduction to tennis

While still a toddler, Capriati was taught to play tennis by her father, Stefano, an Italian-American boxer turned tennis coach, who has continued to coach her in her later professional career.

In 1986, when Capriati's talent for tennis became apparent, her family moved to Florida. At the age of 10, Jennifer enrolled in an intense training program run by Jimmy Evert (whose daughter Chris Evert also became a world-class tennis player).

[edit] Early career

In 1989, Capriati became the youngest player to win the French Open junior singles title at the age of 13 years and 2 months. (The record stood until 1993, when Martina Hingis won the title as a 12-year-old.) She then won the junior singles title at the 1989 US Open and the junior doubles titles at both the US Open and Wimbledon, partnering with Meredith McGrath. On September 14, 1989, she became the youngest ever Wightman Cup player,^[1] playing against Clare Wood, and the first player for four years to win a Wightman Cup match 6–0, 6–0.^[2]

On March 5, 1990, three weeks before her 14th birthday, she became a professional tennis player. 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, she made her Sports Illustrated cover debut the following week. In April, she reached the finals of the Family Circle Magazine Hilton Head Cup, finally losing to Martina Navratilova. Capriati was delighted, still, just to be there; she called Navratilova "a lege, you know, like, a legend." Two 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. She then reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the US Open that year and won her first professional singles title in October at San Juan, Puerto Rico. She finished the year ranked eighth in the world.

In 1991, she reached the semifinals at both Wimbledon and the US Open. She was Wimbledon's youngest-ever semifinalist after defeating the then-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 following year, 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.

[edit] Personal challenges

Booking photograph of Jennifer Capriati, arrested by Coral Gables, Florida police in May 1994 for possession of marijuana.

Amid mounting pressures to live up to others' expectations of her and after a first round loss to Leila Meskhi at the 1993 US Open, Capriati took a break from competitive tennis in late 1993. She soon encountered personal and legal troubles. She was involved in a shoplifting (a ring worth $35) 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. She lost her first round match to Anke Huber and then 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.^{[3] [4]}

[edit] A comeback career

Capriati returned to the tour in February 1996 and began a steady rise that culminated in the World No. 1 ranking, but not before several false starts. Capriati endured almost five years of not winning a singles match at a Grand Slam tournament, from the 1993 US Open through the 1998 French Open. It was not until May 1999 that she finally won her first tournament in six years, in Strasbourg.

Nearly 11 years after she had started playing on the tour, Capriati in 2001 finally broke through at a Grand Slam tournament. Seeded twelfth, she captured the Australian Open title, defeating World No. 4 Monica Seles in the quarterfinals, World No. 2 Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals, and World No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final in straight sets. Five months later, Capriati captured the French Open title, beating Kim Clijsters in the final. She was a semifinalist at both Wimbledon and the US Open that year, 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 singles 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 four championship points during the match, which is the record for most match points saved during a Grand Slam tournament final by the player who ultimately won the match.^[5]

In 2003, Capriati reached the US Open semifinals, losing to Belgium's Justine Henin 4–6, 7–5, 7–6(4). During the match, Capriati was two points from victory eleven times. Tennis great John McEnroe described the match as "[o]ne of the best in the history of the US Open." She also lost in the semifinals of the 2004 US Open to Elena Dementieva 6–0, 2–6, 7–6(5).

Capriati has won 14 professional singles titles and 1 doubles title.

In January 2007, Capriati stated she had not given up hopes of a comeback at age 30 after undergoing arthroscopic surgery in 2005 and playing her last match in Philadelphia in late 2004.^[6] In an interview with the New York Daily News in July 2007, Capriati admitted to suffering from depression and having suicidal thoughts. She said, "When I stopped playing, that's when all this came crumbling down. If I don't have [tennis], who am I? What am I? I was just alive because of this. I've had to ask, 'Well, who is Jennifer? What if this is gone now?' I can't live off of this the rest of my life." She underwent a third shoulder surgery in 2007, and her tennis future remains unclear.^[7]

[edit] Accolades

In 2002, she received an ESPY for Comeback Player of the Year. That year's nominees included Mario Lemieux and Michael Jordan. She was also the 2002 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, in recognition of her success at Wimbledon in 2001 and the successful defence of her Australian Open title in 2002. In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 36th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

[edit] Post-tennis endeavors

In April 2009, it was announced that Capriati would appear on the ABC television reality series "The Superstars". The show, described as a revival of the 1970's series of the same name, premiered on June 23, 2009, in a co-ed format, with Capriati paired with singer and actor David Charvet, best known for his role as a lifeguard on the television show Baywatch. In the first episode of the show, they were one of the lower-performing teams and were sent into a run-off in an obstacle course race against basketball player Lisa Leslie and actor Dan Cortese. Capriati/Charvet won their race and avoided elimination. ^[8] At the start of the next episode, however, which aired on June 30, 2009, it was suddenly announced that Capriati had re-aggravated a previous injury during the first episode's events, and that as a result she and her partner were eliminated from the competition.

[edit] Major finals

[edit] Grand Slam finals

[edit] Singles: 3 (3 titles)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Winner	2001	Australian Open	Hard	Martina Hingis	6–4, 6–3
Winner	2001	French Open	Clay	Kim Clijsters	1–6, 6–4, 12–10
Winner	2002	Australian Open (2)	Hard	Martina Hingis	4–6, 7–6(7), 6–2

[edit] Olympic finals

[edit] Singles: 1 (1 gold medal)

Outcome	Year	Championship	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score in the final
Gold	1992	Barcelona Olympics	Clay	Steffi Graf	3–6, 6–3, 6–4

[edit] Titles (15)

[edit] Singles (14)

No.	Date	Tournament Name	Location	Surface	Opponent in Final	Score in Final
1.	October 22, 1990	Puerto Rico Open	Dorado, Puerto Rico	Hard	Zina Garrison	5–7, 6–4, 6–2
2.	July 29, 1991	Mazda Tennis Classic (1)	San Diego, California, U.S.	Hard	Monica Seles	4–6, 6–1, 7–6(2)
3.	August 5, 1991	Canadian Open	Toronto	Hard	Katerina Maleeva	6–2, 6–3
4.	July 27, 1992	Olympic Games	Barcelona, Spain	Clay	Steffi Graf	3–6, 6–3, 6–4
5.	August 24, 1992	Mazda Classic (2)	San Diego, California, U.S.	Hard	Conchita Martínez	6–3, 6–2
6.	January 11, 1993	Peters New South Wales Open Tournament of Champions	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Anke Huber	6–1, 6–4
7.	May 17, 1999	Internationaux de Strasbourg	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Elena Likhovtseva	6–1, 6–3
8.	November 1, 1999	Bell Challenge	Quebec City, Canada	Hard	Chanda Rubin	4–6, 6–1, 6–2
9.	September 25, 2000	SEAT Open	Luxembourg City, Luxembourg	Carpet	Magdalena Maleeva	4–6, 6–1, 6–4
10.	January 15, 2001	Australian Open (1)	Melbourne	Hard	Martina Hingis	6–4, 6–3
11.	April 16, 2001	Family Circle Cup	Charleston, South Carolina, U.S.	Clay	Martina Hingis	6–0, 4–6, 6–4
12.	May 28, 2001	French Open	Paris	Clay	Kim Clijsters	1–6, 6–4, 12–10
13.	January 14, 2002	Australian Open (2)	Melbourne	Hard	Martina Hingis	4–6, 7–6(7), 6–2
14.	August 18, 2003	Pilot Pen Tennis	New Haven, Connecticut, U.S.	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6–2, 4–0 retired

[edit] Doubles (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Partner	Opponents in Final	Score in Final
1.	May 12, 1991	Rome, Italy	Clay	Monica Seles	Nicole Bradtke Elna Reinach	7–5, 6–2

[edit] Grand Slam singles performance timeline

A = did not participate in the tournament

SR = the ratio of the number of Grand Slam singles tournaments won to the number of those tournaments played

[edit] Head-to-head record against other players

Capriati's win-loss record against certain players who have been ranked World No. 10 or higher is as follows:

Players who have been ranked World No. 1 are in boldface.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Jennifer Capriati profile on the WTA Tour's official website
• Jennifer Capriati at the Fed Cup

Jennifer Capriati Achievements v • d • e Women's Tennis Association (WTA) World No. 1 players Chris Evert (1975/1985 - 260 w) · Evonne Goolagong Cawley (1976 - 2 w) · / Martina Navrátilová (1978/1987 - 331 w) · Tracy Austin (1980 - 22 w) · Steffi Graf (1987/1997 - 377 w) · // Monica Seles (1991/1996 - 178 w) · Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1995 - 12 w) · Martina Hingis (1997/2001 - 209 w) · Lindsay Davenport (1998/2006 - 98 w) · Jennifer Capriati (2001/2002 - 17 w) · Venus Williams (2002 - 11 w) · Serena Williams (2002/2009 - 76 w) · Kim Clijsters (2003/2006 - 19 w) · Justine Henin (2003/2008 - 117 w) · Amélie Mauresmo (2004/2006 - 39 w) · Maria Sharapova (2005/2008 - 17 w) · Ana Ivanović (2008 - 12 w) · Jelena Janković (2008/2009 - 18 w) · Dinara Safina (2009 - 26 w) WTA rankings incepted on November 3, 1975 · (year first held/year last held - number of weeks (w)) · current No. 1 in bold, as of November 9, 2009 v • d • e Tennis at the Summer Olympics • Olympic Champions in women's singles 1900: Charlotte Cooper • 1908: Dorothea Chambers, Gwendoline Eastlake-Smith (indoors) • 1912: Marguerite Broquedis, Edith Hannam (indoors) • 1920: Suzanne Lenglen • 1924: Helen Wills • 1988: Steffi Graf • 1992: Jennifer Capriati • 1996: Lindsay Davenport • 2000: Venus Williams • 2004: Justine Henin-Hardenne • 2008: Elena Dementieva v • d • e Winners of the Laureus World Sports Award for Sportswoman of the Year 2000: Marion Jones* · 2001: Cathy Freeman · 2002: Jennifer Capriati · 2003: Serena Williams · 2004: Annika Sörenstam · 2005: Kelly Holmes · 2006: Janica Kostelić · 2007: Yelena Isinbayeva · 2008: Justine Henin · 2009: Yelena Isinbayeva * Since this award, Jones has admitted to using performance-enhancing drugs. Her award is in doubt.