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| Reborn Capriati clinches title |
January, 27th 2001
Australian Open
Most people predicted child tennis prodigy Jennifer Capriati would win her
first Grand Slam in the 1990s - not a decade later.
But Capriati became one of sport's most high-profile cases of teenage
dillusionment and burn-out.
However she has hauled herself back into tennis' spotlight to claim her
first Grand Slam title - crowning one of the greatest comebacks in the game.
After a remarkable Australian
Open final, in which she swept Martina Hingis aside 6-4 6-3, Capriati said:
"I believe it, but then I can't believe it at the same time.
From here on I will always have the belief in myself that I can do anything
and won't be afraid in any match that I go in."
The triumph also cemented a reunion with her father-coach Stefano.
Capriati ran to hug her father to share her special moment after firing a
backhand return winner to take the championship.
"I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him. I don't know if I could have
done with any other coach. He's helped me in my game so much.
Today he was looking on more as my dad than as my coach."
Stefano basked in his daughter's great sporting achievement after all that
had gone in the past.
"It's this question of desire and will and she has all this," he said.
"It came back to her. She lost it for a while, but it's now back in her and
I hope it will last for a long time. She has worked real hard for this."
Capriati becomes the biggest
outsider to win a women's Grand Slam title since tennis went open in 1968.
The 12th seed recalled her emotions on match point.
"It was a winner down the line, but it was the slowest winner. It just
kept going. As soon as I saw that, it was clean, I'd done it, the reality just hit me
then. I just jumped for joy. I just couldn't believe it, I felt the chills, I just thought 'wow, the
moment has really come and I can really enjoy it and now I know it's real,
it really happened.'"
Capriati won the Olympic gold medal in Barcelona in 1992 and had rated it as
her greatest achievement.
But does her Australian Open triumph now surpass that?
"I have been thinking about that. But I think it's just too far apart.
That (gold medal) actually seems like another life. So this is a new life,
a different life. It's actually winning something for the first time again."
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