28 giugno 2003
Wimbledon
Jennifer Capriati reached the third round
having dropped just seven games and, on paper, no one was expecting her to
concede many more during her Centre Court engagement with Akiko Morigami,
world ranked 90 and making her debut this year at The Championships.
Capriati, seeded eighth and a Wimbledon veteran with two semi-final
appearances, albeit 10 years apart - she missed four years - and with 13
titles to her name including three Grand Slams, was expected to need just a
few games to settle her game before setting about the destruction of her
opponent. How wrong can one be. It took her 85 long minutes to come through
6-4, 6-4.
Morigami, aged 23 and four years younger than the American star, does not
have a big shot, but she plays the angles well and is content to engage
opponents in long exchanges.
That approach frustrated Capriati, who failed to make the expected crucial
break when the opportunity arose in the sixth game and then found herself
having to save her own serve in the next.
As it was, the two held on until the 10th game, when finally the
breakthrough came for Capriati. At the previous change-over the American, a
winner of 13 tour titles, including three Grand Slams, received attention
from the trainer for her right shoulder.
A shoulder problem might well account for the series of errors which were
plaguing Capriati, who found difficulty with many of her returns as well as
her groundstrokes. This allowed Morigami to gain in confidence and
eventually she captured the Capriati serve in the seventh game of the second
set, thanks to a fierce return into the corner.
That stung Capriati into action. She gathered herself to recover lost ground
and concentrated long enough to reel off the next two games and progress, as
expected - albeit a lot later than expected - into the last 16 where
Anastasia Myskina of Russia, the world number 10, awaits her. And on this
form, she will find herself in a lot more trouble.
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