Jennifer Capriati

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jennifer Capriati

Country	United States
Residence	Wesley Chapel, Florida, USA
Date of birth	March 29, 1976
Place of birth	New York, New York, USA
Height	5' 7" (1.70 m)
Weight	160 lbs. (72.5 kg)
Turned Pro	March 5, 1990
Plays	Right-handed (two-handed backhand)
Career Prize Money	$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)
U.S. Open	SF (1991, 2001, 2003-2004)
Doubles
Career record:	66-50
Career titles:	1
Highest ranking:	No. 28 (March 2, 1992)
Infobox 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 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.

Contents 1 Childhood 2 Early titles 3 Personal challenges 4 A comeback career 5 Accolades 6 Grand Slam singles finals 6.1 Wins (3) 7 Titles (14) 7.1 Singles (14) 8 Grand Slam singles performance timeline 9 References 10 External links

[edit] Childhood

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.

[edit] Early titles

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 and 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 and the junior doubles titles at both the US Open and 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 and 2 months), where she lost to the eventual champion, Monica Seles. Capriati reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the US 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 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.

[edit] Personal challenges

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, and 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 and legal troubles. She was involved in a shoplifting incident in December 1993, and 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.

[edit] A comeback career

With her career seemingly in doubt, Capriati returned to the tour in 1996 and 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, and 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 and left Henin-Hardenne needing medical attention due to dehydration and exhaustion. During the match, Capriati was just two points from victory eleven times.

During her career, 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 30 after under going arthroscopic surgery in 2005 and playing her last match in Philadelphia in late 2004. ^[1]

[edit] 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 and Michael Jordan.

In 2005, TENNIS Magazine put her in 36th place in its list of 40 Greatest Players of the TENNIS era.

[edit] Grand Slam singles finals

[edit] 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

[edit] Titles (14)

[edit] Singles (14)

Legend Grand Slam (3) WTA Championships (0) Olympic Gold (1) Tier 1 Event (2) WTA Tour (8)

Titles by Surface Hard (9) Clay (4) Grass (0) Carpet (1)

No.	Date	Tournament	Surface	Opponent in the final	Score
1.	Oct 22, 1990	San Juan, Puerto Rico, USA	Hard	Zina Garrison	5-7, 6-4, 6-2
2.	Jul 29, 1991	San Diego, USA	Hard	Monica Seles	4-6, 6-1, 7-6(2)
3.	Aug 5, 1991	Toronto, Canada	Hard	Katerina Maleeva	6-2, 6-3
4.	Jul 27, 1992	Olympic Games (Barcelona, Spain)	Clay	Steffi Graf	3-6, 6-3, 6-4
5.	Aug 24, 1992	San Diego, USA	Hard	Conchita Martinez	6-3, 6-2
6.	January 11, 1993	Sydney, Australia	Hard	Anke Huber	6-1, 6-4
7.	May 17, 1999	Strasbourg, France	Clay	Elena Likhovtseva	6-1, 6-3
8.	November 1, 1999	Quebec, Canada	Hard	Chanda Rubin	4-6, 6-1, 6-2
9.	September 25, 2000	Luxembourg, Luxembourg	Carpet	Magdalena Maleeva	4-6, 6-1, 6-4
10.	January 15, 2001	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Martina Hingis	6-4, 6-3
11.	April 16, 2001	Charleston, South Carolina	Clay	Martina Hingis	6-0, 4-6, 6-4
12.	May 28, 2001	French Open, Paris, France	Clay	Kim Clijsters	1-6, 6-4, 12-10
13.	January 14, 2002	Australian Open, Melbourne, Australia	Hard	Martina Hingis	4-6, 7-6(7), 6-2
14.	August 18, 2003	New Haven, Connecticut	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-2, 4-0 retired

[edit] Grand Slam singles performance timeline

Tournament	1990	1991	1992	1993	1994	1995	1996	1997	1998	1999	2000	2001	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	Career SR
Australian Open	A	A	QF	QF	A	A	A	1R	A	2R	SF	W	W	1R	A	A	A	A	2 / 8
French Open	SF	4R	QF	QF	A	A	1R	A	A	4R	1R	W	SF	4R	SF	A	A		1 / 11
Wimbledon	4R	SF	QF	QF	A	A	A	A	2R	2R	4R	SF	QF	QF	QF	A	A		0 / 11
U.S. Open	4R	SF	3R	1R	A	A	1R	1R	1R	4R	4R	SF	QF	SF	SF	A	A		0 / 13
SR	0 / 3	0 / 3	0 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 2	0 / 4	0 / 4	2 / 4	1 / 4	0 / 4	0 / 3	0 / 0	0 / 0	0 / 0	3 / 43

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] References

1. ^ Capriati dreams of comeback two years on. Telugal Portal (17 January 2007). Retrieved on 2007-02-01.

[edit] External links

• WTA Tour profile for Jennifer Capriati
• Fed Cup record
• Jennifer Capriati fan site
• Jennifer Capriati photo collection
• The official site of Jennifer Capriati in Ukraine and Russia
• "American tennis star Jennifer Capriati bows out of Athens; replaced by Raymond" - Canada.com article dated August 10, 2004

Preceded by Martina Hingis Lindsay Davenport Venus Williams Venus Williams	World No. 1 October 15, 2001 - November 4, 2001 January 14, 2002 - February 24, 2002 March 18, 2002 - April 21, 2002 May 20, 2002 - June 9, 2002	Succeeded by Lindsay Davenport Venus Williams Venus Williams Venus Williams
Preceded by -	WTA Newcomer of the Year 1990	Succeeded by Andrea Strnadova
Preceded by Monica Seles	WTA Comeback Player of the Year 1996	Succeeded by Mary Pierce
Preceded by Venus Wiliams	WTA Player of the Year 2001	Succeeded by Serena Williams
Preceded by Martina Hingis	ITF World Champion 2001	Succeeded by Serena Williams
Preceded by Marion Jones	Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year 2001	Succeeded by Serena Williams

v • d • e

Tennis at the Summer Olympics | Olympic Champions in Women's tennis

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

v • d • e

Australian Open women's singles champions*

* Open Era | (1969-70-71) Margaret Smith Court | (1972) Virginia Wade | (1973) Margaret Smith Court | (1974-75-76-1977[Dec]) Evonne Goolagong | (1977[Jan]) Kerry Reid | (1978) Chris O'Neil | (1979) Barbara Jordan | (1980) Hana Mandlíková | (1981) Martina Navrátilová | (1982) Chris Evert | (1983) Martina Navrátilová | (1984) Chris Evert | (1985) Martina Navrátilová | (1987) Hana Mandlíková | (1988-89-90) Steffi Graf | (1991-92-93) Monica Seles | (1994) Steffi Graf | (1995) Mary Pierce | (1996) Monica Seles | (1997-98-99) Martina Hingis | (2000) Lindsay Davenport | (2001-02) Jennifer Capriati | (2003) Serena Williams | (2004) Justine Henin | (2005) Serena Williams | (2006) Amélie Mauresmo | (2007) Serena Williams

v • d • e

French Open women's singles champions*

* Open Era | Nancy Richey (1968) | Margaret Smith Court (1969–70, 1973) | Evonne Goolagong (1971) | Billie Jean King (1972) | Chris Evert (1974–75, 1979–80, 1983, 1985–86) | Sue Barker (1976) | Mima Jaušovec (1977) | Virginia Ruzici (1978) | Hana Mandlíková (1981) | Martina Navrátilová (1982, 1984) | Steffi Graf (1987–88, 1993, 1995–96, 1999) | Arantxa Sánchez Vicario (1989, 1994, 1998) | Monica Seles (1990–92) | Iva Majoli (1997) | Mary Pierce (2000) | Jennifer Capriati (2001) | Serena Williams (2002) | Justine Henin (2003, 2005–06) | Anastasia Myskina (2004)

Women's Tennis Association | World No. 1's in Women's tennis
Tracy Austin • Jennifer Capriati • Kim Clijsters • Lindsay Davenport • Chris Evert • Steffi Graf • Justine Henin • Martina Hingis • Amélie Mauresmo • Martina Navrátilová • Arantxa Sánchez Vicario • Monica Seles • Maria Sharapova • Serena Williams • Venus Williams