Capriati

CARLSBAD, Calif. -- Through three sets and a tiebreaker, 15-year-old Jennifer Capriati matched Monica Seles, the No. 1 player in the world, volley for volley and game for game.Finally, Seles' backhand fell short, hitting the net and Capriati had the biggest victory of her career.Capriati, seeded fourth in the Mazda Tennis Classic, defeated Seles, 4-6, 6-1, 7-5 (7-2), in a championship match featuring the two youngest finalists since the open era began in women's tennis.The loss dropped Seles, 17, to No. 2 in the world rankings and allowed Steffi Graf to regain the No. 1 spot.

NEW YORK - Lindsay Davenport had played all summer without the pain in her knee or foot that had troubled her for nearly two years. Since Wimbledon, Davenport had been sound. Her ground strokes were flawless. Her serve had become a major plus, winning her easy points and making the game fun. Until yesterday, a day that belonged to the Russians, with two of their women advancing to the U.S. Open final for the first time - each defeating an American. For Davenport, a groin muscle that was stiff after practice Thursday was achy after warm-ups yesterday and became punishingly painful by the middle of her semifinal match against 19-year-old Svetlana Kuznetsova, a strong, athletic opponent.

PHILADELPHIA -- It is officially the Virginia Slims of Philadelphia, but don't be deceived. In fact, it is the Jennifer Capriati Open.Last night, Capriati returned to pro tennis for the first time since a first-round loss at the 1993 U.S. Open and subsequent run-ins with the law, including an arrest for marijuana possession and a stint at a drug rehabilitation center.She returned to a standing ovation, cheers and whistles, as an unseeded wild-card entry to face Anke Huber, No. 13 in the world.

NEW YORK - Serena Williams said she got an apology. She needed an instant rematch. In a 2-hour, 6-minute slugfest filled with memorable winners and bizarre mis-hits, with balls that skidded off lines and caromed off the net tape, with grunts and groans and gravity-defying gets, eighth-seeded Jennifer Capriati upset No. 3 seed Serena Williams, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, last night in the U.S. Open women's quarterfinals. Afterward, Williams said she was both "cheated" and "robbed" after four critical calls went against her in the third set when television replays showed she should have won all four points.

CORAL GABLES, Fla. -- Multimillionaire tennis star Jennifer Capriati was arrested on drug charges with two other teens in a $50-a-night Coral Gables motel yesterday morning.Capriati, on leave from the women's tour and estranged from her family, was charged with a misdemeanor marijuana possession charge. Her companions -- a 19-year-old "drifter" who said he met her at a party a few days ago and a 17-year-old female runaway -- were charged with felony possession of crack cocaine and heroin, respectively.

Jennifer Capriati, little Jenny of the bouncy smile and sparkly eyes, is in a drug rehab center. She was allegedly caught holding some dope in a semi-seedy hotel room. The guy who was with her said they spent the weekend there, partying on booze and drugs.She's the bright little girl gone bad, and there's much wringing of hands as to what went wrong, as if we didn't know.It's an ugly, sordid mess that is in no way surprising. Actually, there's one surprise: that she's the first of the tennis teen prodigies to end up like this.

WIMBLEDON, England -- All Martina Navratilova could see was 15 and fearless, this kid with the bouncing French-braided ponytail and the baggy culottes.Navratilova floated chip shots and short-armed serves, and the kid just swung from the hips and landed shots at the lines. The tension stretched across two sets and two days, Navratilova struggling, the kid charging, tennis sliding into another era."Rookies don't know about pressure," Navratilova said. "The pressure builds up the older you get. Even though you don't have that many more years left, things mean a lot more."

WIMBLEDON, England -- The slipper came off America's tennis Cinderella yesterday, and it wasn't even near midnight when Jennifer Capriati slapped her last valiant backhand into the net in a 6-4, 6-4 Wimbledon semifinal loss to Gabriela Sabatini of Argentina.Capriati had stolen the Wimbledon spotlight Wednesday with her shocking straight-set victory over nine-time champion Martina Navratilova. And some here were inclined to think that Capriati was on a roll that would add up to Navratilova one day, Sabatini the next and Graf in the end. As it turned out, the 15-year-old Capriati was like a kid in a candy shop.

WIMBLEDON, England -- The last time Pam Shriver played singles on Centre Court at the All England Club, she was ranked fifth in the world. She might as well have been 500th, the way she played that day against Steffi Graf in the 1988 semifinals of Wimbledon."

BARCELONA, Spain -- Jennifer Capriati, who has run into her share of problems this year, found a way to qualify for the women's single final today against Germany's Steffi Graf.Capriati defeated Spain's Aranxta Sanchez Vicario, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, on Wednesday to advance the women's final, and Graf beat American Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-4, 6-2.The semifinal victory is part of a resurgence for Capriati, who earlier this year was battling a weight problem and, reportedly, fighting with her father. She was eliminated in the quarterfinals of all three Grand Slam tournaments this year.

WIMBLEDON, England - This was supposed to be a fabulous grudge match, two ferocious-hitting competitors who would wield their ground strokes like bludgeons and grunt and sweat and swear until one or the other hit a mighty winner. Instead, Serena Williams dismissed Jennifer Capriati from Wimbledon's Centre Court yesterday as if she were the most minor of nuisances. As a woman who uses her name spelled backward - Aneres - as the moniker of her new design firm, Williams likely spent more time braiding her hair, choosing her jewelry and applying her sparkly makeup than she did in finishing off Capriati, 6-1, 6-1, in a 46-minute Wimbledon quarterfinal.

WIMBLEDON, England - There was not a hint of a smile from Serena Williams yesterday; not when she blasted a 126-mph serve, fastest by a woman in Wimbledon history, past a befuddled Tatiana Golovin; not when she finished off the first set in 27 minutes by winning 12 of the final 15 points; not when she won 19 of 21 points in a dominating stretch in the second set. Not when she patted the shoulder of Golovin, a 16-year-old who wasn't given room to maneuver...

PARIS -- The 10 words poured forth from Jennifer Capriati's lips with a confounding lack of emotion. "I guess I was just flat today. But no problem." No problem, she said. It's just the semifinals of the French Open. What's the big deal? And Capriati, who knocked off Serena Williams in a dramatic quarterfinal match, said it with as little fire as she showed in yesterday's 6-2, 6-2 loss in 61 minutes that sent slender Anastasia Myskina into an all-Russian championship match against longtime friend Elena Dementieva.

PARIS - No more giggly news conferences. No more reports on famous people met at the Cannes Film Festival. And no more simply fascinating ruminations about the exact colors of their tennis outfits. Serena and Venus Williams are out of the French Open. Both of them. On the same day, in the same quarterfinal round, in the same tournament for the first time since they were both professionals, beginning in 1995, and these twin losses probably mark the end of their days of domination of the WTA Tour.

NEW YORK - Ever since Kim Clijsters arrived at the U.S. Open two weeks ago with the No. 1 ranking, she has been asked if she needs to win a Grand Slam tournament to validate that ranking. She has said little about it, choosing to let her play speak for her. But yesterday, after embarrassing No. 3 seed Lindsay Davenport, 6-2, 6-3, in 63 minutes, Clijsters said she has been inspired. "It's been talked about a lot," she said. "And it's really motivated me. I'm very satisfied with the way I've played.

NEW YORK - No. 6 seed Jennifer Capriati looked up at the lights surrounding Arthur Ashe Stadium and saw light rain. The lines were getting just a little slippery, but three rain delays had already stretched the match over 6 1/2 hours. She wanted it over. "Maybe I should always be that inspired," she said, after raising her game and intensity and bolting through the final game, breaking No. 11 Elena Dementieva for a 6-3, 7-5 victory to advance to the quarterfinals of the U.S. Open for the third straight year.

NEW YORK -- Win or lose, her summer vacation ends at Louis Armstrong Stadium. It should always be this way for a 15-year-old tennis player who is still fresh and fearless. She is trying to pack a championship trophy in her knapsack and bring it back to school for show and tell.Some kids go to camp, but Jennifer Capriati goes on tour. She does Paris and London. She knocks off defending champions. She climbs up the rankings like a student skipping grades and heading straight to graduate school.

PARIS -- Under the most placid of blue skies, the proceedings turned turbulent on the red clay yesterday at the French Open.Jennifer Capriati, last year's tournament sweetheart when she went to the semifinals of her first Grand Slam event, was dismissed in straight sets in the fourth round by Conchita Martinez, and 10th-seeded Michael Chang took advantage of his familiarity with center court to upset seventh-seeded Guy Forget of France.Monica Seles, the defending women's champion, scrambled her way out of a 3-6, 0-2 deficit to Sandra Cecchini of Italy and used a 3-6, 6-3, 6-0 victory over the unseeded baseliner to advance to the quarterfinals against Martinez.

NEW YORK - The blimp was bobbing harmlessly in the wind blowing across a cloudy sky, circling the United States Tennis Center the way it always does during the U.S. Open, when No. 6 seed Jennifer Capriati got mad at it. After falling far behind in the second set, she went to her seat during a changeover and had words with the umpire. "Is that blimp going to go around the whole time?" she asked. After surviving her match with Emilie Loit, 6-2, 2-6, 6-2, Capriati came to the post-match interview and said she saw nothing strange in her actions.

WIMBLEDON, England - All through the first week of the Wimbledon Championships and part way into the second, Serena and Venus Williams devoured their opponents in less time than it takes most people to eat lunch. None of their matches took much longer than an hour to finish, with Serena dropping only 18 games and her sister 16. Yesterday, though, both of their matches only really began an hour after they started, with third sets getting under way in thrilling theater on the stage that is Wimbledon's Centre Court.