St. Petersburg, Florida, October 15, 2001: Jennifer Capriati becomes only the ninth player to hold the No. 1 ranking since the conception of computer ranking in women's tennis on November 3, 1975. Wimbledon, June 1991: "Hey, you know what?" says a British tennis writer as we make our way to the press writing room from the centre court after watching Jennifer Capriati, aged 15 years and 95 days, become the youngest female semifinalist at Wimbledon after beating the nine-time champion Martina Navratilova in the quarterfinals. "Ladbrokes are offering just 3-1 on Jennifer reaching No. 1 before she turns 18," says the Englishman.
"Just 3-1? That's good money, you know. She'd surely get there before she applies for a driving licence," this writer tells him.
ON THAT unforgettable afternoon at the celebrated cathedral of tennis, even 3-1 seemed outrageously attractive odds. Having watched the prodigious big-boned teenager blast her way past one of the greatest players of all time, even hardened veterans of the sporting business got carried away.
Youth, youthful energy, has a way of sweeping away all the negatives, like a giant wave. In its glorious presence, doubts disappear, cynicism melts away like snow in the face of a brave winter sun. And even in a world which has time and again reminded us, sometimes harshly, that there is no such thing as a sure thing, many of us tended to believe on that day that Capriati, for one, was a sure thing vis a vis her chances of getting to the No. 1 spot before age 18. Form, pedigree, track record... almost everything pointed to the skies, so to say. In 1990, she had become the youngest Grand Slam semifinalist in the sport's history, at the French Open in Paris, a year in which she also became the youngest player to be ranked in the Top 10, at 14 years and seven months. And then came the giant-killing run a year later at Wimbledon. So, where was the doubt? That summer in Wimbledon, you were sure that Capriati would go on to make a mockery of those odds offered by the bookmakers.
But, then, life - with its unpredictable twists and turns - has a way of making a mockery of many a seemingly wise forecast. In the event, as it turned out, Capriati, after a shockingly bumpy ride through life and tennis - living out the sort of episode that a script-writer for a Zee TV soap might not have dreamed of - entirely dropped out of the rankings on June 27, 1994.... less than three months past her 18th birthday! Of all the many ironies of Capriati's life and career, nothing is perhaps quite as monumental as the fact that the woman who was widely expected to become the youngest ever No. 1 in the history of the sport has, in fact, earned the distinction of becoming the oldest ever No. 1 (on debut at the top spot).
On October 15, when Capriati become only the ninth player to be ranked No. 1 in the 26 years that rankings have existed, the American with the wide, winning smile was 25 years and six months old.
Each of the eight women who preceded Capriati to the top spot - Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport - did so when they were younger.
In fact, four of the eight - Tracy Austin, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Martina Hingis - got to the top spot while still in their teens in a sport where the distance from the cradle to the throne is but a topspin lob away!
Then again, Capriati, for her part, will know all about the landmines - psychological more than physical - that will have to be negotiated in that remarkably short distance. A text-book case burn-out, she experimented with drugs, kept wrong company, even endured a reprimand for shop-lifting, before sinking into the oblivion, a million miles away from our consciousness.
Surely, on her 18th birthday, nothing could have been as far removed from Capriati's dreams - if, amidst all the turmoil, she still retained the capacity to dream at that point in her life - as the game's No. 1 ranking. As for betting, if you had cared to check with Ladbrokes in the summer of 1994 - the year in which the great Steffi Graf was bumped out in the first round by Lori McNeil and Conchita Martinez went on to win Wimbledon - you might have heard of odds of 100,000-1 if you had wanted to bet on Capriati coming back to claim the No. 1 spot!
Ah, sporting life is a strange matter indeed. As a great philosopher mused on life in general, a buffoon may be fatal to it. Then again, after riding one of the greatest and most inspiring comebacks in the history of modern sport to its apotheosis, Capriati herself would not care to journey back through her life and change anything.
"I wouldn't go back and change anything because, I don't know, who knows if I would have gotten to No. 1 if everything had gone like it was supposed to go," said the woman who has won two Grand Slam titles - the Australian and French Opens - this year. "I am pretty happy where I am at and what I've achieved," said Capriati, not long after getting to the top spot. "I wouldn't want to change anything at this point."
Such remarkable maturity, and acceptance of reality, is certainly a product of the wisdom that comes with having lived through adversity at a very young age. And, quite often this season, in post match press conferences, the lessons learnt in the school of hard knocks were clearly evident in Capriati's patient and considered responses to difficult - sometimes even embarrassing - questions.
And it is precisely because she has been through what she has that Capriati is able to savour the rewards of all the hard work and perseverance in quite the manner in which she is doing it.
"It has definitely been a unique journey for me, unique story for everyone," said Capriati. "It is never too late and I am just thrilled I could get to this point now. I can enjoy it now because I really know what it's taken. To me it is a little more profound because I know inside what I've been through to get to this point."
Then the larger perspective... which, given her experiences in life, is almost inescapable. "I feel like I have been to hell and back," said Capriati. "But still I don't want to make it seem big because it is just a number and it's just a game. It's not just because I am No. 1 that everything is great and everything is hunky-dory."
In a sport where most players would give their right hand to get to where Capriati is, that is a rather unusual perspective. But, then, Capriati's has been an unusual life in tennis. Everything about her, from the time she was 12 or 13, was, in a way, not normal. And it is no surprise that she should have reached her career peak at a time when quite a few top players start thinking about life after tennis.
"It feels great. It's every kid's dream to be No. 1," said Capriati. "For me, I think you can appreciate it more when you are older. When I look back on my career, I am proud to have come back from everything that's happened in my life, and just to enjoy tennis and play this well. And think it show everybody that it is never too late to realise your talent, or your dream. If you think positive and believe in yourself, good things are going to come."
Looking back, it was this belief, this unshakeable belief, that has been the key to Capriati's surge to the top. The woman who made her debut in rankings as No. 25 in 1990, at age 14, and went on to win seven titles before she turned 17, fell into an abyss in the mid-90s. After winning in Sydney in early 1993, Capriati spent six years without a title, finally ending the drought at Strasbourg in May 1999. She won a solitary title again in 2000 - at Luxembourg - but it was the fairytale run at the Australian Open in January this year, when she became the lowest seed to win a Grand Slam title in the professional era (No. 12) that provided the momentum to the Capriati comeback.
"It was a surprise because for the first time I went all the way through," said Capriati. "Before, I went really close but was not quite there. I thought for some reason I was not supposed to go all the way. The Australian Open changed everything for me. I don't know if it's luck, if it's fate, whatever."
Let's get this straight here: it had less to do with luck and more to do with talent and self-belief. For, Capriati was no one shot wonder this year. She added the French Open in June and then went on to make the semifinals at both Wimbledon and the U. S. Open. In fact, she is the only player this season to have made at least the semifinals in all the four Grand Slam tournaments. Whatever else it is, luck cannot be that consistent!
How strong a No. 1 Capriati will turn out to be is hard to say right now. Surely, she cannot hope to dominate from the top in the manner of a Graf or a Navratilova. Many would like to believe that she is merely warming the seat, for a short while, for the leonine Ms. Venus Williams. But, that's hardly relevant right now. As Richard Bach wrote in his classic Jonathan Livingstone Seagull, "Perfect speed is being there... the gull who flies highest flies furthest." Jennifer Capriati is there. And it's just perfect for her right now. Tomorrow is another day... as are all her yesterdays.
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