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by Prip And so it was meant to be after all, that Jennifer Capriati would have her name forever immortalized on the silver trophy that bears the names of Martina Navratilova, Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, and the very person that she beat today, Martina Hingis. Maybe it's been a long time coming, maybe it was a mere fluke that the player who quite nearly took her out of the tournament in the very first round suffered a crippling toe injury. But there was little doubt that Jennifer Capriati deserved her win in the final match. Martina Hingis can usually count on Australian crowds to back her in any circumstances. In fact, put Martina Hingis on the Rod Laver Arena against Jelena Dokic (pre-defection) or Alicia Molik, and at least of the crowd would still be behind the Swiss Miss. But today, the crowd left little doubt as to their loyalty, and their loyalty went to Jennifer Capriati. The very Jennifer Capriati that was written off years ago. The very Jennifer Capriati that beat the two top players in the world to engrave her name legitimately in the tennis history books. It wasn't that Martina Hingis wasn't serious about the title. Martina Hingis is serious about the title in every tournament she enters. But this title bid had a lot more riding on it. Martina Hingis is and has been the number one player forever, except for the 7 weeks in April last year, despite not having won a Grand Slam title for exactly 2 years now. Already sore about losing both the singles and doubles finals last year, Martina was adamant that her Grand Slam title drought be brought to an end on this very court that she's had so much success on. And she could not possibly have had better preparation coming into the tournament. Perhaps the fact that Jennifer had been practicing out in the sun before the match while Martina preferred the indoor courts had something to do with the way both players started the match. But Martina had only herself to blame. She knew that Jennifer would come out blasting, and she knew that Jennifer was indeed a serious threat to her. In fact, among all the opponents she'd faced in these two weeks, she probably has the most respect for the former child prodigy. But the four weeks of long hard battles, playing both singles and doubles against the likes of the Williamses and Lindsay Davenport, took its toll. Martina was just too tired to stay focused, too tired to fight it out. Her arms and body didn't have the strength to put away the winners, and her feet felt like they glued to the ground. Jennifer, on the other hand, who grew up with the weight of the world on her shoulders, came into the match floating on a pillow of air. Why should she worry? Nothing was expected of her. She is in the best shape of her life, faster on her feet and stronger than ever before. And that's exactly what lead to her 6-4 6-3 victory, making Jennifer the lowest seed to ever win a Grand Slam title. Martina Hingis made too many errors early in the match, while Jennifer stuck to her guns and muscled her way into the points. Everything was working for Jennifer: her serve gave her easy points, her feet got her to every drop-shot Martina threw across the net, and her shots were landing in. Martina, making backhand errors that so rarely come off her racquet, missing overheads and finding Jennifer's backhand as difficult to read as do 90% of the tennis players in the world find hers. It was apt then that on match point, Jennifer gritted her teeth, stepped in and swung her double-handed backhand. Time practically stood still as the ball went across the high part of the net, landed near the singles line and a foot inside the baseline, and went past the baseline well beyond the racquet of Martina Hingis. That's what it felt to the people watching. Imagine what it felt like for Jennifer. She later said that that shot had to be the slowest winner ever, in no disrespect for Martina's footspeed, but in the sense that that grand Slam victory had been so elusive that her mind could hardly believe that she had done it. When it did register that she had won the match, though, everything else seemed so right. She turned to her father, threw her arms up in the air and jumped high in the air, with the biggest smile that possibly anyone had ever seen on her face in a long time. After her performance here, Jennifer Capriati is in no doubt as to her ability to get through the number of matches necessary to do the job. She is no longer in doubt of her true potential and capability. And she is no longer in doubt of herself. Anything is possible for the Florida-based American, and whomever stands in the way of her and a top 5 ranking had better know damn well what they are doing. With the magnitude of what had just happened on Centre Court, the Swedish fans could hardly make an impression despite coming out in full force for their man Jonas Bjorkman in the doubles final with Todd Woodbridge against Byron Black and David Prinosil. The Swedish Superman always aims to please his blue-and-yellow-clad fans, and didn't make an exception today. Taking the match in four sets, Bjorkman made it 3 out of 4 here in Melbourne with 3 different partners. Always the gentleman, Jonas later went out to celebrate around the grounds with his fans, paying special attention to a wheelchair bound Viking. With all the excitements that's been going on here in Melbourne, perhaps Arnaud Clement will take some encouragement from Jennifer's win, and surprise the tennis world yet again tomorrow in the final match on Centre Court for the year. And in the title match before that, the juices will certainly be flowing with two excellent mixed doubles pairs. Barbara Schett and Joshua Eagle will meet Corina Morariu and Ellis Ferreira with the mixed title on the line. |