What a difference four years makes. Then the world, including Newsweek in a cover story on the 14-year-old phenom, dubbed Capriati the ““Can’t-Miss Kid.’’ She had a winning smile to go with her perfect strokes. Before she even made her debut as a pro at the age of 13 and 11 months, she had cut commercial deals with Diadora, the Italian sportswear company; Prince, the racquet manufacturer, and HBO. For a while, Jennifer didn’t miss much. She reached the finals in two of her first three tournaments. At 15, Capriati played her way to the semis of two Grand Slam events, including a Wimbledon triumph over tennis immortal Martina Navratilova, who was more than twice her age. Without winning a major event, she was, according to Forbes magazine, the 26th highest-paid athlete in the world.
With the insouciance of youth, Capriati was not worried about stumbling over her early success. But whom the gods would humble, they first make strong and gifted. By last September, when Jennifer suffered a first-round loss in the U.S. Open, the signs of burnout were becoming apparent. In November she moved out of her parents’ home, saying she needed ““some space.’’ And in December, she formally quit the tour, insisting that she just wanted ““a break’’ and a chance to finish high school. ““She’s the most hyped tennis player of all time,’’ says Pam Shriver, now 31 and a 17-year veteran of the tennis tour. ““Nobody can operate with those kind of expectations without repercussions.''
At least not Jennifer. tnLast week,tn/per sr Capriati, whose misdemeanor charge, if sustained, will probably result in nothing more than a court appearance and a judicial reprimand, voluntarily entered a Miami Beach hospital – for rehabilitation, said her agent, for an unspecified problem and an indefinite amount of time. And the Capriati camp closed ranks, portraying the arrest as a minor matter. ““A teenager thing,’’ said her father, Stefano, who orchestrated Jennifer’s career. ““A problem with poor judgment,’’ said her lawyer, John Ross. ““Everything’s fine,’’ added her agent, Barbara Perry.
But everything clearly isn’t. In December Capriati was issued a citation in Tampa after allegedly shoplifting an inexpensive silver ring from a shopping-mall kiosk. And, sources told Newsweek, Capriati already has spent ““more than a week’’ in drug rehab at a facility in Tarpon Springs, near Tampa. The sources indicate that during February Capriati was in The Manors, a $950-a-day private psychiatric hospital on the grounds of an old country club.
While the hospital refused to discuss any patients, a vice president said it has beds for 19 adolescents and that its treatment programs range upwards of seven days for ““acute stabilization.’’ According to /done.tnsources in Florida, Jennifer’s drug problem has been described as including cocaine. However, a spokesperson for the family denied that Capriati used cocaine: ““After a good, honest and frank meeting this morning of the whole family, we have no reason to believe there has ever been anything more than marijuana involved.''
The arrest of one of the highest-profile players in women’s/fixed.tn tennis was more bad news for the sport. The game is now dominated by a single player, Steffi Graf, since her only true competition, Monica Seles, was stabbed by a crazed spectator last summer. To make matters worse, the matches tend to be baseline duels unfit for television hype.
The Jennifer Capriati that police encountered at the Gables Inn bore little resemblance to the buoyant young woman who appeared destined to become a great champion. In recent months, she had been living with a friend in Boca Raton, scene of her triumphant pro debut, and was being tutored privately to take the SAT exam next month. She appeared to have gained at least 20 pounds, and one store salesman who recognized her, but refused to take her check, described her as ““bleary-eyed.’’ When a Sports Illustrated reporter caught up with her a few weeks ago, Capriati wouldn’t say much: ““I’m not ready to open up. I’m just chillin’, having fun.''
Just how much fun is already hotly debated, given that descriptions by the revelers at the Gables Inn range from mild teenage excess involving beer, pot and Valium to a sustained drug orgy allegedly involving crack cocaine and heroin. According to several sources, Capriati had driven down to the Miami area Friday to meet her friend Lucy, a 16-year-old she met at The Manors. They joined up with Lucy’s friend Timoneet Branagan, 17, another local girl who had spent time at The Manors for drug prob-lems. It was Branagan’s parents who sent police to the motel Monday morning. (Branagan is the niece of Newsweek Contributing Editor Curry Kirkpatrick.)
According to participants and other sources, on Friday night, the three girls, joined by some male friends, began partying around Coral Gables. Early Saturday morning, Capriati checked into the motel, accompanied by a young blond fellow named Nathan Wilson. For Saturday night, the girls dressed up because it was prom night at the local high school. They never made it to the dance. Instead, they floated through town, picking up kids as they went, finally alighting at Lucy’s house. Her parents were home, however, took one look at what they called ““an ugly scene’’ and tossed the kids out, except for Lucy, who was ““grounded.’’ By early Sunday morning the party had moved back to the motel. Mark Black, 19, one of several who attended, said the kids drank beer and smoked marijuana. While the others dozed, Black said, he and Capriati stayed up talking all night.
Sunday morning, Capriati footed the bill for a group breakfast at Denny’s. Black says he wondered aloud how Jennifer could afford it. He says that Lucy, who had gone home and rejoined them in the morning, laughed and told him, ““Don’t you know? Jen is Jennifer Capriati.’’ By evening the party had resumed. This time the nominal excuse was Black’s 19th birthday. ““We wanted to celebrate a little,’’ he says. Among those joining the party was Tom Wineland, a 19-year-old whom police later described as ““a drifter’’ from Connecticut. At various times, Black says, there were up to 25 ““pretty spaced’’ people partying in Capriati’s room.
On Sunday night, Timoneet’s stepfather came searching for her after being tipped off about the motel soiree by Lucy’s mother. When he arrived, he says, there were only a few kids in the room. Timoneet was out with one of the boys. Still, he went into the room. ““Capriati was on the bed – dazed, bloated, whacked-out on something,’’ he says. ““The room was a total mess with beer cans and trash from food everywhere.''
When Timoneet finally arrived, she argued with her stepfather, but eventually went home with him. Early Monday morning she fled through a window and, for the first time, her family called the police. In late morning, still agitated and distraught, the family called the police again. Separately, Lucy’s parents called a friend on the narcotics squad. In response, two sets of officers set off for the motel and the bust went down.
According to his lawyer, Wineland, the alleged drifter, insisted Capriati had given him her car and bank card to buy more drugs for the party, and, he told a British tabloid, she was ““whacked-out’’ on heroin. Nathan Wilson, 18, who had been part of the party scene, claimed to Newsweek that he used cocaine and heroin with Capriati during the weekend. Black insists that Capriati didn’t use any heavy drugs. ““She didn’t give them any money for drugs – she gave them her car and bank card to get cigarettes and food,’’ he says. Police performed no blood tests on Capriati before she was released and hospitalized. But Coral Gables police officer Martin Burros told The Miami Herald that although Jennifer ““was under some type of influence,’’ it was not heroin. Ross, Capriati’s lawyer, sought to debunk Wineland’s allegation as ““coming from a crackhead.’’ He told Miami’s WPLG-TV: ““Examine the source and [decide] whether or not you think it’s credible.''
For the moment, Capriati doesn’t have much credibility as a corporate symbol. The economic cost of the escapade was felt immediately. Diadora and Prince canceled their multimillion-dollar deals with her.
Who is to blame for this mess? The usual suspects: parents and other adults who bungled their jobs; fans, commentators and writers who operate the myth-making machinery, and, as in the case of other, less celebrated teens, the kid herself. Tennis official Mary Francis Giltz, who marveled at Capriati’s skill and poise when she umpired at Jennifer’s first tournament, says, ““I’m not sure you can turn such young children into megastars and get away with it. How do you keep control?’’ The answer has been obvious for a long time. You don’t. She who makes the $5 million ultimately calls the tune. And lately the tune, at least among some budding young tennis stars, appears to include the siren song of illicit drugs. Dr. Jim Loehr, a sports psychologist at Saddlebrook, an elite tennis factory where Capriati once lived and trained, says, ““I’ve seen more [drugs] in the last three years than in my whole 17 years in the business.’’ Michael Mewshaw, author of ““Ladies of the Court,’’ says the sport is unfit for youngsters. ““I interviewed more than 100 of these players and asked them if they’d let their daughters play professionally. Not one said yes.''
Capriati is still only 18, and her life is hardly over. As Pam Shriver points out, Jennifer could take a couple of years off from the circuit and still ““make her comeback at 20.’’ Indeed, that might be the happiest possible outcome, that the young woman recovers and endures. The child, however, has probably been lost forever.
PHOTOS: A life led in public: Once she was Daddy’s not-so-little girl: last year she was a powerful player at Wimbledon; last week, a mug shot in Florida
PHOTO: Too much, too fast? Capriati catches her breath at the U.S. Open
AT THE NET
By age 3, little Jennifer was hitting with a ball machine. Pop, bounce, smack. Now at 18, it’s her life that’s being swatted about. A reprise:
Just three weeks shy of her 14th birthday, Jennifer turns pro. She had thoroughly dominated the junior circuit the year before, so her ambitious father, Stefano, had petitioned for her to join the tour. She makes it to the semis of the French Open – the youngest player ever – and signs endorsement deals worth millions.
High-pressure tennis is still a fun game for her and she plays with refreshing joy. Off the court, fans line up for her autograph. On the court, she seems on the cusp of fulfilling her promise. She makes it to the final four at both Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She doesn’t win, but her progress is as palpable as her powerful strokes.
She is now in the first rank of players and capable of delighting paparazzi by posing with such stars as tnMonica Selestn Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini. Some distress begins to show. After she loses in an early round during a Tokyo tournament, hangers-on hear Jennifer tell her father that she just wants to go home. She does not have a good season, but regroups to win a gold medal at the Barcelona Olympics.
In the spring she loses to a woman ranked 330th in the world. In September she loses in the U.S. Open’s first round. Complaining of bone chips in her elbow, she leaves the tour and plans to finish high school. She also moves out of her parents’ home. In December, she’s charged with shoplifting. Within months, she is arrested on marijuana-possession charges.
PHOTOS: Eight and swinging; Teen idol; Tennis prom; Olympic gold
OLD ENOUGH TO WIN
At 16, she was the youngest U.S. Open champ. At 21, she was a sidelined multimillionaire with a painful sciatica problem. Now 31, she’s married and trying a comeback.
America’s first hard-court teen dream, she went on to win 157 singles championships. Today, at 39, she’s a wife, mother and occasional TV commentator.
Her pigtails flew as fast as her backhands when at 15 she was the youngest player ever seeded at Wimbledon. By the time she was 18, though, she’d had enough. she walked away from the game. Instead, She began working with troubled teens. Later she set up the Kids Stuff Foundation, which sends terminally ill youngsters to a ranch.
A rookie at 15, she rose rapidly, won eight Grand Slam titles and was at the top of her game last year when a deranged German spectator stabbed her during a match. She has not played since. Last week she sued the German tennis federation for $10 million.
The next great young women’s hope is almost sure to be Venus Williams (above, with sister Serena). She’ll turn 14 in June and is expected to turn pro by August. Serena, 10 months younger, may follow her lead.
