December, 29th 2004
Jennifer Capriati has been part of the Fila
family for the past six years, but the former No. 1 is now looking for a new
home to hang her clothes. The clothing company's contract negotiations with
Capriati have hit a clothesline over the amount of her annual guarantee.
Consequently, Fila announced it will not renew Capriati's contract when it
expires on Friday.
"Our agreement (with Capriati) is up at the end of this year and we have
mutually agreed to move on," Mark Westerman, Fila vice president of global
marketing told Daniel Kaplan of The SportsBusiness Journal. "We wish her the
best of luck. We will always consider her part of the Fila family."
The three-time Grand Slam champion initially began wearing Fila in 1999. In
October of 2001, Capriati capitalized on her compelling comeback story that
generated global attention for Fila by signing a three-year contract
extension with the company. In addition to the deal that paid her a reported
$1.5 million annually, Capriati cruised off in a new red Ferrari courtesy of
Fila, which rewarded Capriati with the sports car car for reaching No. 1.
The 28-year-old Capriati has been Fila's
best-known tennis champion since 11-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg wore
the popular pin-stripe Fila shirt while winning Wimbledon five straight years.
While Capriati remains a popular player with a loyal fan following, it's
quite possible Fila did not believe Capriati's recent results warranted the
seven-figure annual guarantee Capriati was reportedly seeking. Fila
countered with a contract offer that featured an annual six-figure guarantee,
leaving the two sides "wide apart on terms for a renewal" according to the
SportsBusiness Journal.
While the combative Capriati plays entertaining, crowd-pleasing tennis and
has been a Grand Slam contender on all surfaces in recent years, she has not
consistently matched contemporaries, including Lindsay Davenport, in winning
tournament titles. Capriati has claimed just two tournament titles in the
past three years the 2002 Australian Open and the 2003 New Haven and has
collected only 14 tournament titles in her career. To be fair, Capriati sat
out the 1995 season while dealing with personal issues and has had to combat
injuries in recent years. But Capriati's lack of commitment to her
conditioning, combined with her inability to seize opportunities in recent
majors, has prevented her from raising another Grand Slam championship since
she successfully defended her Australian Open title.
There's no denying Capriati has been a fighter
for much of her career in battles both professional and personal, but the
semifinal stage of the U.S. Open has posed almost paralyzing pressure
preventing her from completing victories. Capriati has served for a place in
the U.S. Open final five times in three different matches she failed to
close out Monica Seles when serving for a place in the 1991 final twice;
served twice for a spot in the 2003 final against Justine Henin-Hardenne in
a match where she was two points from victory on 10 different occasions
before falling; and served for the match in September's semifinal against
Elena Dementieva before suffering a heart-breaking 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(5) setback
and has failed to seize any of those opportunities.
The 2001 Roland Garros champion beat Serena Williams in the Roland Garros
quarterfinals and entered the semifinal against Anastasia Myskina as the
favorite in June, but played tight, tentative tennis in succumbing, 6-2,
6-2. Capriati did not drop a set in cruising to the Wimbledon quarterfinals,
but then barely broke a sweat as Serena swept her off the court, 6-1, 6-1,
in one of the worst Grand Slam thrashings of Capriati's career.
The decision to drop Capriati represents a significant shift in Fila's
marketing strategy, which recently ended its 22-year run as the clothing
sponsor of the U.S. Open.
In May of 2002, Fila signed Kim Clijsters to a clothing contract with Fila.
The Clijsters signing was a major coup for Fila and gave the company three
of the top 10-ranked women in the world at that time in Capriati, Clijsters
and then ninth-ranked Jelena Dokic.
Now, Fila which still has reigning U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova
under contract plans to reinforce its status as a tennis brand, but rather
than pursue high-ranked players it will reportedly focus on top juniors. It
is similar to the successful strategy Babolat employed in recruiting leading
juniors including Andy Roddick to use its racquets and strings.
While Fila failed to get Capriati to sign along the dotted line, it would be
foolish to write off a champion who has produced so many inspired comebacks
in the past and sometimes seems to play her best tennis when facing the
least expectations.
Capriati needs only to look at another American former child prodigy Andre
Agassi for inspiration. Like Agassi, Capriati was a highly-hyped young
player who produced almost immediate results. Like Agassi, Capriati plays an
assertive baseline brand of tennis based on the ability to take the ball
early and paint the corners of the court with penetrating groundstrokes.
Like Agassi, Capriati has been both an endorsement and ratings winner, whose
matches have generated some of the highest ratings in ESPN history. Like
Agassi, Capriati is a capable contender on all surfaces, but Capriati has
yet to show Agassi's commitment to conditioning off the court that would
enable her to fully exploit her superior ground game.
The question the 10th-ranked Capriati now faces is can she re-dedicate
herself to her career and strengthen her body and mind enough to craft yet
another comeback? Or has the 14-year veteran reached a point in her career
where she's content to make the occasional run at a major title, but is
unwilling to commit to the workload necessary compete for titles on a weekly basis?
Only Capriati herself can answer those questions, but it will be intriguing
to chart her course as she searches for the answers.
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