JENNIFER CAPRIATI Biography - Famous Sports men and women

 
 

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JENNIFER CAPRIATI

Name: Jennifer Capriati                                                           
Born: 29 March 1976 New York, New York                                             
                                                                                   
Jennifer Marie Capriati (born March 29, 1976, in New York City) is a former       
World No. 1 women's tennis player from the United States. She won three Grand     
Slam singles titles (2001 and 2002 Australian Open, 2001 French Open), and the     
women's singles gold medal at the 1992 Olympic Games.                             
                                                                                   
While she was still a toddler, Jennifer was introduced to tennis by her father,   
Stefano Capriati, an Italian-American boxer turned tennis coach, who has           
continued to coach her in her later professional career.                           
                                                                                   
In 1986, when Jennifer's aptitude for tennis was beginning to show, her family     
moved to Florida. At the age of ten, Jennifer enrolled in an intense training     
program run by Jimmy Evert (whose daughter Chris Evert also became a world class   
tennis player).                                                                   
                                                                                   
In 1989, Capriati became the youngest player to win the French Open junior         
singles title at the age of 13 years and 2 months. (The record stood until 1993,   
when Martina Hingis won the title as a 12-year-old.) She then went on to win the   
junior singles title at the 1989 U.S. Open and the junior doubles titles at both   
the U.S. Open and Wimbledon, partnering with Meredith McGrath.                     
                                                                                   
On March 5, 1990, three weeks before her 14th birthday, she became a               
professional tennis player. In her debut tournament at Boca Raton, Florida, she   
defeated four seeded players while becoming the youngest-ever player to reach a   
tour final, where she lost 6-4, 7-5 to Gabriela Sabatini. Despite the loss, her   
debut was on the cover of Sports Illustrated the following week. Three months     
later, she became the youngest-ever semifinalist at the French Open (aged 14       
years and 2 months), where she lost to the eventual champion, Monica Seles. She   
then reached the fourth round at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open that year and   
won her first professional singles title in October at San Juan, Puerto Rico.     
She finished the year ranked eighth in the world.                                 
                                                                                   
In 1991, she reached the semifinals at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She was   
Wimbledon's youngest-ever semifinalist after defeating the then-defending         
champion Martina Navratilova in the quarterfinals, which was Navratilova's         
earliest Wimbledon exit in 14 years. Capriati won two singles titles that year     
and her only tour doubles title (in Rome, partnering with Seles).                 
                                                                                   
The biggest moment of Capriati's early career came in 1992, when she won the       
women's singles gold medal at the Olympic Games in Barcelona. In the final, she   
defeated Steffi Graf (who was the gold medalist four years earlier in Seoul) 3-6, 
6-3, 6-4.