Twenty years on, a return to tennis in Australia like no other

The day Jennifer Capriati played her career match was stifling.

It was late January 2002, and Capriati, then 25 years old, was faced with Martina Hingis, 21 years old, in the Australian Open women’s final in Melbourne. The conditions were so oppressive – temperatures on the pitch reached 115 Fahrenheit (46 degrees Celsius) – that both players fell against the stadium backdrop between points, even after bathing in clear ice water. 10 minutes rest between the second and third innings. They even took turns dropping themselves into the extra chair.

It’s been 20 years since Capriati come back from a set and a 4-0 knockdown to beat Hingis 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2 and claim her third and final major title. In this way, she became the first woman in Grand Slam history to save four match points and win the title.

“The way they both hit the ball in that game was amazing,” said Harold Solomon, Capriati’s coach from 1999 to 2000, “Jennifer was a great dribbling striker because she received the ball so early and she She was not afraid, even when she fell. She’s as good a athlete as anyone who’s ever been in this game, and that includes the Williams sisters.”

The match ended as one of the greatest comebacks in women’s tennis Grand Slam history. No woman since has saved four match points to win a major final.

Capriati made her professional debut in March 1990, right before she 14th birthday and reached the semi-finals of the French Open that year and the round of 16 at Wimbledon and the United States Open. At the end of the season, she won her first WTA tournament and placed in the top 10 in the world.

Hingis is also a prodigy. She reached her first US Open semifinal in 1996 at the age of 15. The following year, she reached the finals of all four professional tournaments, winning Wimbledon and the Australian and US Open.

In 1992, Capriati beat Steffi Graf to win gold at the Barcelona Olympics. But a series of events in 1993 and ’94, including theft charges, an arrest for marijuana possession and a stint in drug rehab, nearly derailed her career.

But Capriati fought back, and in 2001 she won the Australian Open by defeating Hingis, the world No. Capriati followed that with a win over Kim Clijsters in the final of the French Open and ended the semifinals at Wimbledon and the US. Open. In October 2001, Capriati became number 1 in the world.

Denise Capriati, Jennifer’s mother, said by phone from her home in Florida. “She always knew how to fight.”

But there is no match as impressive as the match Australian Finals 2002. Hingis led 6-4, 4-0 and kept a point for 5-0. She did so using Capriati’s quick pace to hit short corners followed by shots into the net and light-touch volley winners.

But Hingis made a double foul on one key point and Capriati took advantage. She saved one point in the match with the backhand winner and another after a 14-stroke rally. Two more two-point matches took place in the set with Hingis tossing his rackets in disgust before both players left the court to enter the cool changing rooms.

“At the time, we knew Jennifer had the game,” said her mother, who sat in the players’ area. “She was better in the heat.”

Hingis suffered a leg cramp and was treated after the fifth set of the third set. In the next game, she made three inexplicable foot errors and awarded the crucial break to Capriati.

“I really don’t know how to win,” Capriati said at the time. “I have a second wind, a third wind, a fourth wind, I don’t know how many winds there are out there.”

For Hingis, who reached the Australian final six years in a row, winning the title from 1997 to ’99, the loss was heavy. Her agent, Natasha Marks, said in a text message: “It was a tough final for her and very difficult for her to talk about/want to reflect on. Hingis declined to be interviewed for this article.

Capriati did not respond to repeated phone and text messages.

Following the success early in her career, Capriati designed herself for freefall and later her own revival. The 2002 Australian Open was the pinnacle.

“She wanted it so badly,” Denise said. “She fought so hard and did a lot of things. She was very disciplined to come back. She did it just for herself. “