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Jennifer Capriati

Country:	United States
Residence:	Wesley Chapel, Florida, USA
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 (born March 29, 1976, in New York City) is a former World No. 1 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.

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.

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 semi-finalist at the French Open (aged 14 years and 2 months), where she lost to the eventual champion Monica Seles. Capriati went on to reach the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the US Open that year, and won her first top-level singles title that October at San Juan, Puerto Rico. She finished her first year on the tour ranked the World No. 8.

1991 saw Capriati reach the semi-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. She became Wimbledon's youngest-ever semi-finalist after defeating the defending-champion Martina Navratilova in the quarter-finals, forcing Navratilova's earliest Wimbledon exit for 14 years. She 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.

Personal challenges

But 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. The enjoyment of playing 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. After that, she went on a sabbatical of 15 months and did not play on the tour for the whole of 1995.

A Comeback Career

With her career seemingly in doubt and for most, it may have been over, Capriati took to the court with a new interest and determination in the game, returning to the tour in 1996 and beginning a meteoric rise that would culminate in claiming the Number 1 Player in the World, but not before having several false starts, it would not be until May 1999, she would finally win her first tournament in six years at Strasbourg.

In 2001, 11 years after she had first taken the tour by storm as a young prodigy, 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 this 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 reached 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 4-6, 0-4 down at one point, 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 made an inspiring run to the US Open semi-finals, only to lose a classic match to Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne in a third set tiebreak, with the final score 6-4, 5-7, 6-7(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 a remarkable eleven times.

During her career, Capriati has won 14 professional singles titles and 1 doubles title. Recently, she has suffered several dramatic defeats and has struggled with different injuries that have kept her from playing a full tour schedule, these injuries include the right shoulder and wrist with two surgeries done on each. However, Jennifer still hopes to return to the WTA tour at some stage in 2007.

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.

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)

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
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 6-2
14.	August 18, 2003	New Haven, Connecticut	Hard	Lindsay Davenport	6-2 4-0 retired

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

External links

• Jennifer Capriati at the Women's Tennis Association
• 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

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• Australian Open champions
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• Summer Olympics medalists
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• Tennis players at the 1992 Summer Olympics
• Italian-Americans
• 1976 births
• Living people