Jennifer Marie Capriati, Born March 29, 1976 in New York City, is a former professional tennis player, ranked number one in the world for a short time, and the winner of three women's singles championships in Grand Slam torunaments. Capriati won 14 professional singles tournaments during her career, along with one doubles championship.
Capriati made her professional debut in 1990 at the age of 14 when she reached the finals of the hard court tournament in Boca Raton, Florida, losing there to Gabriela Sabatini. Capriati reached the semifinals of the French Open in her debut and later became the youngest ever player to crack the top 10 at age 14 years, 235 days in October of that year. Between 1990 and 1993, Capriati won six singles titles, including a Gold Medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, defeating Steffi Graf in the final.
In 1998, Capriati won her first Grand Slam singles match in five years at Wimbledon. During the next two years, Capriati slowly returned to cmpionship form, winning her first title in six years in Strasbourg, France, in 1999 and regaining a top 20 ranking. At the 2001 Australian Open, the reinvigorated Capriati became the lowest seed to ever win the championship when she defeated Martina Hingis (ranked number one in the workd) in straight sets for her first Grand Slam championship. She also won the French Open that year, claiming the number one ranking in October. After successfully defending her Australian Open crown in 2002, Capriati became a top ten mainstay until injuries derailed her career in 2004.
In 2005, Tennis magazine ranked Capriati number 36 in its list of the 40 greatest players in the 40 years of that magazine.
Ongoing problems with her shoulder and wrist have prevented Capriati from competing on the WTA Tour. She has had several surgeries on her wrist and shoulder, most recently in 2007. Capriati has not officially retired, but she is widely regarded as so.
In April 2009, it was announced that Capriati would appear on the ABC television reality series "The Superstars". The show, described as a revival of the 1970s series of the same name, premiered on June 23, 2009, in a co-ed format, with Capriati paired with singer and actor David Charvet, best known for his role as a lifeguard on the television show Baywatch.
In the first episode of the show, they were one of the lower-performing teams and were sent into a run-off in an obstacle course race against basketball player Lisa Leslie and actor Dan Cortese. Capriati/Charvet won their race and avoided elimination. At the start of the next episode, however, which aired on June 30, 2009, it was suddenly announced that Capriati had re-aggravated a previous injury during the first episode's events, and that as a result she and her partner were eliminated from the competition.
Source : Wikipedia
