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Capriati hits an ace Former phenom turns her life around
Nothing in sports touches our hearts more than the star who returns to glory after a serious injury or illness. But, not to take anything away from brave stalwarts like Lance Armstrong or Mario Lemieux, what Jennifer Capriati has accomplished seems even more stirring. Everybody, after all, cheers on the player who has to overcome some physical disability. They get the hero's rush. For goodness sake, nobody anywhere, ever, roots against cancer survivors or any of the poor devils whose careers are cut short by ruptured Achilles tendons or torn rotator cuffs. But while such athletes are the victims of sad fate, Capriati and her ilk are looked upon differently. They were blessed with great physical talent and then botched it themselves in some fashion. They are not figures we must regard sympathetically, because they were responsible for their own troubles. No question Capriati made her own bed. A pro at 13, overnight sensation, championships and endorsements -- suddenly it all turned sour. Who, really, but she quite knows why? Too much too soon. Family problems. Weight problems. Emotional problems. Ugly new friends. Drugs. Even shoplifting. What wasn't sad was sordid, and we wrote her off as another teen disaster. It took a long time for her to fight her way back. As recently as 1998, she ended the year out of the Top 100. But here's the tough part: When Capriati finally did start to put herself back together and win some matches, she was invariably grilled about her past. Every press conference was more like an intervention than an interview. It did not help that, by tradition, tennis is a very personal sport. After a golf round, the pro is asked about club selection. After a tennis match, the player is asked about life choice. The questions for Capriati were often hard, sometimes cynical. More than once she broke down and cried. Each new victory only came with more reminders of the past. How many times does a kid have to explain herself? But she persevered. I remember seeing her practice with another player one day last spring. She'd climbed back into the Top 20 by then and was no longer a curiosity. In fact, I couldn't avoid thinking of the irony -- even as the crowd grew and buzzed, nobody even noticed Capriati. That's because the player she was hitting with was Anna Kournikova. In a way, I thought, at last Capriati was free -- neither phenom, nor personality. Somebody else was now the center of attention. But who would know that Capriati wasn't finished restoring herself? Who would know that, within the year, she would come all the way back, win not one, but two Grand Slam championships? To be sure, her chances at Wimbledon are difficult. Even if grass is a good surface for Capriati, going to grass following two weeks on the clay at Roland Garros is a difficult assignment. But who'd bet against destiny now? After she won the French, Capriati and some friends went out to dinner. It was a large party that included Sean Connery and Maurice Greene, the 100-meter sprint champion who had presented her with the championship trophy. What happened after dinner?, someone asked Greene. "Well, I went back to the hotel and went to sleep, and Jennifer went to party," he replied. "She deserved it, didn't she?" Yes, she did. And, finally, there were no more questions. These commentaries, which appear each Wednesday on National Public Radio's
Morning Edition, are posted weekly by
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