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Surprise! Jennifer's Back!
Well, surprise surprise! Who would have thought that after six years of numerous ill fated comebacks and injuries and personal problems that Jennifer Capriati would come back to the WTA circuit as a force in tennis?!?! Certainly not the critics! Just about everyone in tennis had written off Capriati as nothing more than a tragedy who needed to move past tennis and start a new life. She has finally proven them wrong! In one of the most poignant stories of the year so far, Jennifer did not only look like a shadow of her former self - she embodied her former self - as she whipped the competition at Strasbourg for her first WTA title in more than six years. She did so in convincing fashion without even dropping a set, defeating three seeds along the way. Her opponents? Try 1997's world junior champion and sixth seed Cara Black in the second round. She absolutely crushed world #9 and top seed Nathalie Tauziat in the quarter finals with a devastating 6-1 6-0 rout. In the final, she outhit second seed Elena Likhovtseva 6-1 6-3. Quite an unbelievable performance from a player who has been in the doldrums for a good portion of her career.
Gone are the days when she was raking in the wins as easily as reciting the alphabet. As a 14 year old, she pummelled her way into the top 10 with huge groundstrokes and fierce competitiveness - much like Monica Seles, the player she was compared to and with whom she had set up an intense rivalry. She had worked her way through to the semi finals of the French Open and Wimbledon in 1990, and won the coveted Olympic gold medal in 1992. She appeared only a breath away from achieving Grand Slam dreams. Instead, her career took a turn for the worst as she suffered from burnout at such a young age. This tragedy inspired the WTA to introduce the age eligibility rules which prevent young players from as young as 13-16 to join the circuit full-time. As a result of the burnout, Jennifer found herself up against the law in relation to drug and shoplifting charges. But what has been absolutely tragic in this situation was the fact that this was a star who had the world before her feet, and who was poised for greatness in the way Seles, Graf and Hingis had been able to achieve. Unfortunately, she never did live up to her potential following the burnout and continued on a number of moot comebacks which only saw her eliminated in the first round by unknown players barely ranked in the top 100.
The copyright of the article Winner of the French - Hingis? Williams? Seles?......Capriati?!? in Women's Tennis is owned by Michael Cecilio. Permission to republish Winner of the French - Hingis? Williams? Seles?......Capriati?!? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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