27 gennaio 2001
Australian Open
Jennifer Capriati's sensational victory in the women's singles at the Australian Open
marks another chapter in her tennis career.
It is a career in which her father Stefano has taken a major starring role.
It was he who stuck a small, plastic tennis racquet over the cot of Capriati
at the family home in New York before she could talk.
It was he who was drilling her mighty forehand on the Florida courts before
she could hardly walk.
Rebel
Not surprisingly, Capriati's wildchild days as a 16-year-old were often
reported as a rebellion against her family, and Stefano in particular.
He was one of the first of a breed of overbearing 'tennis fathers', a mantle
picked up so willingly by the fathers of Mary Pierce, Lucic and, most
recently, Jelena Dokic.
But Capriati's fairytale also embraces her patched-up relationship with her dad.
Stefano is her coach again, travelling the circuit with his "baby", as he
calls her, and the chemistry undoubtedly helped Capriati win her first Grand
Slam title.
Crucially, he has supplied a little discipline at just the time when
Capriati's thoughts were wandering again, this time to boyfriend and ATP
Tour player, Xavier Malisse.
More importantly, however, Capriati the 24-year-old has been old enough to
take or reject the advice as she so desired.
It is she who has buckled down to a heavy workload of physical fitness
programmes in a bid to shed the excess weight that was preventing her from
making the huge steps she took against Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis.
Family ties
And as she turned to celebrate with her father after clinching the
women's, it was clear that their bond had survived.
"My Dad is a tremendous force for me right now," she said.
"He's the best coach I've ever had, and he will always be the best coach
to me. He started me playing tennis and my game is basically what he taught me.
But I definitely have my own mind now. I do what I want. He doesn't tell me what time to go to
bed - well, okay, sometimes he does - but we trust each other again."
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