Jennifer Capriati Biography

Tennis star Jennifer Capriati turned pro at age 13 and reached the semifinals of the 1990 French Open at age 14. The next year she became the youngest-ever women’s semifinalist at Wimbledon, and in 1992 won the Olympic gold medal by beating Steffi Graf in Barcelona, Spain. Then the pressures of being a teen sensation seemed to unnerve her, and her career fell apart. She was stopped for shoplifting in a Florida mall in 1993, and the next year arrested for possession of marijuana after a party in a Florida motel. Her police mug shot was widely published and became an enduring image of a teen idol turned tortfeasor. Jennifer Capriati began a slow career comeback in the late 1990s, and in 2001 she unexpectedly won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open. Capriati followed that with a second Grand Slam victory at the 2001 French Open. In January 2002 she again won the Australian Open, defeating Martina Hingis to defend her title. But she was ousted in the first round of the 2003 Australian Open, and back and shoulder injuries led to her effective retirement in the mid-2000s. Jennifer Capriati was back in the news in June of 2010 after being rushed to a South Florida hospital for a prescription drug overdose.