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Hong Kong (Exhibition) 05-08 Jan 00 (Hard)
Having finished 1999 ranked at her highest ever post-1996 comeback ranking of #23, Jennifer booked herself into a full schedule for the beginning of the year 2000. She started with the Millennium Cup, an exhibition event held in Hong Kong in the first week of January, and also featuring Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce. The rules of the event meant that each singles player in the 8-player draw also had to participate in doubles. Sydney 10-16 Jan 00 (Hard)
After defeating Chanda Rubin, Mary Pierce and World #1 Martina Hingis to win the Millennium Cup exhibition in Hong Kong the week before, all eyes were on Jennifer Capriati as she arrived in Sydney for her first WTA tournament of the year. The draw was bound to be tough, the cut-off ranking for direct entry into the event was #31, so the event was full of top players. In the first round Jennifer was drawn against Sandrine Testud of France (WTA #14). The pair had met four times previously, with Jennifer winning all but their most recent encounter. That, at Quebec in 1998, had gone to a final set tiebreak, but their was no such bother in Sydney, with Jennifer cruising to a 6-3 6-1 victory, and a second round showdown with Russian starlet Anna Kournikova (WTA #13). Australian Open 17-30 Jan 00 (Hard)
Having beaten Mary Pierce and Martina Hingis in Hong Kong in the first week of the year, big things were expected of Jennifer Capriati at the first Grand Slam event of the 21st century. The draw was relatively kind (Jennifer herself was on hand to supervise the women’s draw, as she so often is). Barbara Schwartz of Austria (WTA #43) was her first round opponent, though the second round would be difficult as either 14th-seed Dominique Van Roost or Kim Clijsters, winner of her second WTA title in Hobart a few days previously, would progress.
When the draw was announced Jennifer had been given tough first-match draws in both singles and doubles. In singles she faced 2nd-seed Lindsay Davenport of the United States (WTA #2), the 1999 Wimbledon champion, and in doubles, partnering Lina Krasnaroutskaya of Russia, she was up against 2nd-seeds Davenport and Mary Joe Fernandez, two players who are not short of doubles experience.
However, a week before the tournament began Lindsay Davenport withdrew with a chest infection and was replaced by Chanda Rubin. To make things fair the draw was reshuffled, and in singles Jennifer found herself up against Davenport's replacement Chanda Rubin of the United States (WTA #22), newly created the 4th-seed. In doubles the partnerships had taken a shuffling too. Capriati had now teamed up with Mary Joe Fernandez of the United States (WTA #26: Doubles) and they had been drawn against top seeds Martina Hingis of Switzerland (WTA #2: Doubles) and Mary Pierce of France (WTA #20: Doubles), who would be trying out their new 2000 partnership for the very first time.
In interviews before the event began, Jennifer seemed full of confidence: 'I'm looking forward to starting off the season on a good note in Hong Kong. I ended last year with the highest ranking since I made my comeback in 1996. I have had a few injuries on and off since then, but I'm hoping to continue my progress up the ranking list. My dream, of course, will be to win my first Grand Slam.' After her emotional US Open statement, her new sponsors FILA had set the ground rules with the press before the press conference, but Jennifer seemed happy to talk about the past herself. ' I have memories of those highlights in my career . . . like the time I beat Steffi Graf to win the Olympic gold medal in 1992. They are not distant memories and I hope like in the past I will soon have other more current memories to cherish.' But she talked of the past as connected to the future: '"I took a break in my career which was well needed. I was lucky I was young then . . . I'm a little older now but still young. I'm looking forward to the future. I have a feeling that I will soon break into the top 10. But I don't want to push it and put too much pressure on myself. I will take it one tournament at a time and try and perform well. If the results start coming, then my ranking will improve.' Coach Harold Solomon agreed with Jennifer's Top 10 potential: 'She works hard and is dedicated. Her attitude has been positive. I definitely see the potential for her to move back into the top 10 this year.'
When Jennifer did finally get around to playing her first match of the 21st century she also eventually got around to winning it, but not after a titanic three set struggle and over ten double faults. She eventually defeated Chanda Rubin 6-7 (8-10) 7-5 7-5 to set up a semi-final clash with 2nd-seed Mary Pierce of France (WTA #5), whom she had not played in seven years in singles. In doubles, they met for the first time only fifteen minutes after the two-hour Capriati-Rubin singles match as Pierce and Martina Hingis defeated Capriati and Mary Joe Fernandez 8-3 in the one-set doubles semi-final, played to the same scoreline as a WTA doubles qualifying event, after both teams agreed that Jennifer should be let off a full best-of-three sets match after her gruelling singles match.
In the semi-finals, Jennifer swept aside the seven years between matches with Mary Pierce, and once again beat the World #5 in straight sets 6-4 6-4 to reach her first final of the year. 'I came to Hong Kong to see where I was and how I was playing. It was a good win and will do my confidence a world of good,' she said after beating Pierce. 'This event is a good opportunity to get match practice,' was all that Pierce could find to say.
In the final Jennifer met World #1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland, looking to beat her for the first time in four career meetings. And beat her she did! The last time she beat a World #1 was in November 1996 when she defeated Monica Seles in Chicago. With confidence flying after her wins over Chanda Rubin and Mary Pierce, Jennifer swept to a 5-2 lead in the first set. Then she began to stumble a little and lose confidence, dropping two service games and allowing Hingis to level at 6-6. Nevertheless, Jennifer stormed through the tiebreak, winning it 7-3. Then her service game faltered again, as she dropped all four service games in the second set, losing it 4-6, winning four games courtesy of Hingis dropping serve several times. The match in total featured eighteen service breaks. Hingis looked to be set for a victory as she broke for a 3-1 lead in the final set, but Capriati won the next five games, breaking Hingis twice and serving out for a hard-fought 7-6 (7-3) 4-6 6-3 victory.
Both players had stayed close to the baseline and slugged it out for nearly two hours. 'I couldn't feel much better. It is great. I hope I can repeat it and beat her in a Grand Slam now,' Jennifer said after the match. 'All the hard work at home is paying off. I'm pretty happy with my form now, but I'm going to take it one tournament at a time and not look too far ahead.'
Hingis said that the defeat was a good wake-up call ahead of the Australian Open, which she was hoping to win for the fourth consecutive time. 'It is better to lose here than in Australia.' Pictures
The Sydney event was being played in the new Olympic Tennis Centre, only months away from housing the Sydney 2000 Olympic Tennis event, and Jennifer could not help but be reminded of her Olympic gold medal triumph in Barcelona, where she beat Steffi Graf in the final. "Almost more than anything I would just love to come back and try and defend my gold medal which I haven't done yet. That would be great, just to be back in the whole atmosphere again. And now I have a chance, I think I have a chance, because I am closer than I was last year or the year before, so that makes me want it even more." Sadly for Jennifer, even in the midst of some tremendous play the prospects for Olympic selection looked bleak. Only four players are allowed to represent each country, and with Venus and Serena Williams, Monica Seles and Lindsay Davenport all ranked well inside the Top 10, Jennifer's chances rested on an injury befalling one of them. Beating Testud so easily could only push her further up the rankings though, but rather than letting her look to the future the media once again made sure that she talked about her past. "I think it's just been one long process. I think maybe, to everyone else it's not been the greatest comeback. But I was going at my own pace and that's what I needed to do. I just knew if I stuck with it, it would all come. I didn't really expect it to be right away when I came back, anyway, like wham bam. I didn't really want it to be like that. I mean, I feel good right now and it's everything. I feel great, so I don't know what's going to happen in the future. My fitness is great and that's one of the high points of my game right now. I'm having a lot of fun travelling and going to the different tournaments, and I have a lot of focus right now.
Despite all the hopes, Jennifer lost 4-6 5-7 to Anna Kournikova in the second round at Sydney. Like their first meeting Jennifer squandered breaks in both sets, though this time to a much worse degree in the first set, where she was leading 4-1 before losing six straight games. In the second set, Jennifer was up a break at 2-1, but Kournikova broke right back to lead 3-2, and then 5-3. Though Jennifer pulled back to level at 5-5, the Russian managed to pull out the next two games and win the match. Kournikova said "She hit every shot a winner but I knew she couldn't keep on playing like that for long. I just had to be patient and keep playing out the points. I was generally more consistent and seeing the court better. When I was down, I didn't go for big winners like I used to. That only comes with experience, which I still need, but I'm getting there." Jennifer meanwhile said "I just lost to a good player. I didn't play as well as I have over the past few weeks, but she definitely forced a few errors. She played as good as I've ever seen her play. I'm surprised she hasn't won even a smaller tournament. Maybe she just doesn't concentrate well." The loss continued Jennifer's worrying trend of 1999 second round losses, and was disappointing following her Hong Kong wins over Mary Pierce and Martina Hingis. However, it gave her a few days off before the year's first Grand Slam: the Australian Open. Pictures
Before the tournament began an interesting wildcard doubles partnership was announced for Jennifer. Having looked around for a doubles partner at the Sydney tournament the week before, Jennifer and her coach had settled on Australian teen sensation Jelena Dokic (WTA #65: Doubles), who had memorably beaten Martina Hingis and Mary Pierce herself on the way to the 1999 Wimbledon quarter-finals, and the pair had been awarded a wildcard into the event, as Jennifer’s doubles ranking was too low for direct entry. Despite her limited experience, Dokic already had reached one WTA doubles final, at Tokyo in 1999 with Amanda Coetzer.
In the first round of singles Jennifer got off to an astounding start, crushing Schwartz 6-1 in just eighteen minutes. For the most part Jennifer’s serve was astounding, though the only game that Schwartz won, the fifth game, was when she broke Jennifer’s serve to love.
The first three games of the second set all went to deuce as Schwartz stepped up a gear, and Jennifer relaxed a little after her first set triumph. In all three games Schwartz came out on top and led 3-0. Jennifer picked up her game to win her serve to love, then break Schwartz in the next game, a deuce game, on her second break point. The roll continued and Jennifer completed four games in a row to lead 4-3 on serve. Then the problems began again as Jennifer dropped serve for 4-4, and then failed to convert two break points in the next game, leaving her 4-5 down. Jennifer rebounded to make it 5-5, but both players dropped their next service games to force a tiebreak. In the tiebreak, Barbara Schwartz won the first point on her serve, before Jennifer came alive, winning seven straight points to close out the match 6-1 7-6 (7-1). Pictures