Capriati, Jennifer, << `kap` ree AH tee, JEHN uh fuhr >> (1976-…), was an American professional tennis star. Capriati won two of the four grand slam tournaments in 2001: the Australian Open and the French Open. She also won the Australian Open in 2002. The other two grand slam tournaments are the All-England (Wimbledon) Championship and the United States Open.
Capriati’s victories were the climax of one of the most dramatic comebacks in American tennis history. Capriati had won several junior tennis titles before turning professional in 1990, just before her 14th birthday. Her early success and her outgoing personality made her one of the most popular athletes in women’s sports. In 1990, Capriati became the youngest player to reach the semifinals of a grand slam tournament when she played in the semifinals of the French Open. She was also the youngest player to win a match at Wimbledon. Capriati won the gold medal in women’s singles in the 1992 Summer Olympic Games.
Capriati’s career went into a tailspin starting in 1993 because of personal problems, including an arrest in 1994 for possession of marijuana. She left the women’s professional tour from 1994 to 1996. Capriati then began a comeback that led to her grand slam successes in 2001. In October of that year, she was ranked number one in the world after having fallen to as low as 267th in April 1998. Jennifer Maria Capriati was born on March 29, 1976, in New York City.
