September, 9th 2004
US Open
NEW YORK -- Is this where you came in a long time ago? Say, 1991?
Is this what you were saying to yourself: "That wonderchild Capriati is
going to win the US Open!" Sure, you thought so. I did, anyway. Jennifer
Capriati, all of 15, was in the semifinals of her second Open, after
dethroning the defending champ, Gabriela Sabatini, 6-3, 7-6 (7-1). She'd
pulled the same disrespectful stunt at Wimbledon, evicting champ Martina
Navratilova, 6-4, 7-5. The scamp! Nobody had ever dispossessed the defending
champ in successive majors.
So Jenny was in the semis at Flushing Meadow, and came within 2 points of the title bout.
Didn't happen. Trouble was, an even more thunderous teenager stood in the
way, the-champ-in-waiting, 17-year-old Monica Seles, who had the slight edge
in their cannonading, 6-3, 3-6, 7-6 (7-3).
Oh, so close. Get 'em next time, right? Next year?
Twelve years pass until the "next year" semifinals. It is 2003, and Jenny --
no longer the juvenile lead -- has another champ-to-be, Justine
Henin-Hardenne, practically on toast. The Belgian is cramping, and Capriati
is creeping to the brink of victory -- 10 maddening times just 2 points away
-- before losing 4-6, 7-5, 7-6 (7-4).
Once more, with feeling and fabulous failing, America's tennis sweetheart
has returned to the Open's final four, this time on the strength of a
heart-stopping 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 triumph Tuesday night over another champ,
Serena Williams. (I imagine Stefano Capriati, the sire/coach at courtside,
felt enough flutters to wonder if he'd need Bill Clinton's surgeons.)
But there's no concern about the heart of Jennifer Capriati. It is the one
constant during this indomitable -- and frequently indiscreet -- career,
this odyssey of her, from post-diapers to tennis dotage. She is 28, a pro
since age 13, if you can believe it. Reporters who helped Jenny with her
ninth-grade homework (faxed to a school she seldom saw) have trouble believing it.
However, her heart and legs are supremely intact, ever involved in a fighting mode regardless
of how she's playing, and now intent on the US title. That'a a bauble she
has coveted since first lifting a racket. (In the delivery room?) It would
be a nifty accessory alongside her three majors: Australian, 2001-02, and French, 2001.
"Whenever I felt doudts creeping in," she says of the clash with
Serena, their 17th, "I'd just try to put them away as fast as possible,
and know that whatever happens, happens. But I believe I can win this tournament."
Capriati, the eight seed, is in the outsiders' corral, the all-time
lowest-ranked group of semifinalists. For the first time since the Open
adopted seeding in 1927, the top four seeds -- Henin-Hardenne, Amelie
Mauresmo, Serena and Anastasia Myskina -- all have been scattered to the
winds prior to the semis.
Capriati goes against one of the Russian regiment, sixth seed Elena
Dementieva, tomorrow. On the other side of the draw, fifth seed Lindsay
Davenport, who made short work of Shinobu Asagoe, 6-1, 6-1, opposes the
ninth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, a 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 winner over Nadia Petrova.
You may have noted that the dynastic Sisters Sledgehammer, Venus and Serena
Williams, have been Demoted to the Sisters Meat Mallet, seeded 11th and
third. Overlooking 2003, both absented by injuries, this is the first Open
since 1996 that neither has graced the semis. This was supposed to be the
test of their readiness to resume as the strongarmed enforcers -- and they flunked.
Venus, a fourth-round loser to Davenport, said, "We're working hard; we're winners."
Obviously they're working, but on the wrong things. Coaching the Sisters at
Olympians and US Federation Cuppers, Billie Jean King urged them to adapt,
add variety, make full use of their speed, reach, and ball-strinking gifts
by attacking more at the net. It didn't sink in. Foes have caught on to
their baselining, and wait for the errors to pile up.
Yes, Serena suffered a couple of incorrect calls against Capriati, but they
didn't cost her the match. Her 57 errors (to Capriati's 29), as well as
Capriati herself, were a much greater cause of suffering.
Capriati was mixing her shotmaking increasingly, even volleying, serving
better, and running like a Wonderland hound. Her incredible retrieving for
more than two hours belied the oft-voiced criticism that she's out of shape,
not training sufficiently. Maybe it looks that way because the lady is
thick-waisted sturdy.
She has struggled through injuries, personal failings,
too-much-too-soon-itis, been written off numerous times. Her resume for the
major championships is pitted with gaps, years when she was a no-show for
various reasons. Between 1994 and 1998, she skipped two US Opens, was a
first-round loser in the next three.
In and out of as many scrapes as Little Orphan Annie, Hermione Granger, Lois
Lane, Heidi, Nancy Drew, and the Imperiled Pauline, Jenny keeps fighting
back so that she can fight on the tennis court.
"I fight my heart out," she said, as if we couldn't see and sense it.
"You're in this huge arena, and so many people on top of you [19,1932
Tuesday], watching you. So you're just two warriors out there, fighting. I've
been fighting since I started playing. It's been a struggle to come back and
play at the top level again. Fighting against outside and inside forces."
As she served for the match at 5-4 in the third, her mind went back a year,
to the near miss against Henin-Hardenne. "Yeah, I think it was a good
thing to think about it," she said. "I was like: 'No, this is not going to
happen again! I'm just going to go for it this time the best I can.'"
Two match points vanished before Capriati cashed the third. Now she has to
avoid the semifinal letdown that followed her defeat of Serena at the French
Open. "For some reason I was flat," losing 6-2, 6-2, to Myskina, the
champ-to-be. "I was orrible, lost my focus."
Put an ad in lost-and-found for that focus, kid. Everybody loves a
comebacker, and winning on your 13th try will make this the happiest Open
since Navratilova won on her 11th in 1983. And it won't be where you came in.
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