Ascent to Top Brings End to Her Innocence

You know how it is when you’re not a kid anymore.

You have a few million bucks in the bank, so you get a car instead of the car keys when you behave and you don’t have to take direction if you don’t want to.

You have enough time on the job and you’ve had enough success, so folks don’t look at you like a grandparent watching a cute little tyke trying to take a step for the first time.

You’re a veteran.

That’s right, even when you are all of 16 years and 5 months old. Jennifer Capriati is no longer a girl playing women’s tennis. She may not be old enough yet to be a prom queen, but she is one of the best professional tennis players in the world.

Of course, pressures and expectations come with the turf. It is no longer enough to get to the quarterfinals or the semis. Not anymore.

It was particularly the case at the Mazda Tennis Classic Saturday at La Costa, where Capriati was matched with Germany’s Anke Huber in a semifinal match. She would make the finals. She had to make the finals. Gabriela Sabatini having made her exit in the quarterfinals, Capriati was the last hope for a marquee player in today’s championship match.

After all, Capriati came to this event an Olympic champion, having dispatched Huber in the quarterfinals, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the semifinals and, ultimately, Steffi Graf for the gold medal.

You grow up fast when you beat Graf, partially because you have to be grown up to beat Graf.

“Any time someone has a big win,” she conceded, “people expect more of that person.”

What’s more, Capriati came to San Diego as the defending champion. She beat Monica Seles a year ago in a championship match pairing the youngest finalists in women’s tennis history. What has happened since is that Capriati has outgrown the distinction of being the youngest to do this and the youngest to do that.

Sometimes it’s no fun not being a kid anymore.

All four semifinalists here were fine tennis players or they wouldn’t have been there, but Capriati had the only name with marquee value. The others were more like the leaderboard at the Quad Cities Open.

Naturally, Capriati would turn this day into an adventure. She’s kind of the Randy Myers of women’s tennis. If it’s not time to scramble for her life, don’t bother waking her up.

In the quarterfinals, she was down 4-0 to Zina Garrison in the first set before she won a game. She still won the set, 6-4, and the match, 6-4, 6-4.

It wasn’t any different Saturday against Huber. She was down again 4-0 before half the fans had found a place to park. She rallied to win that set, 7-6, on the tiebreaker, but lost the second, 6-3. She couldn’t have looked more tenuous trying to order a margarita without being carded.

Suddenly, when that third set began, she started playing like a professional who had beaten the likes of Seles, Graf and Martina and wasn’t about to lose to Anke Huber. She got mad and she got tough. She played as if she were ranked sixth in the world and rising.

“I think she played an unbelievable third set,” Huber said. “I couldn’t do anything. I was a little bit tired, but she was unbelievable.”

Capriati won that third set, 6-1.

“It was there all of the sudden in the third set,” Capriati said. “I put it up a couple of notches, or maybe a notch.”

Another notch for the one climactic set might have been enough Saturday and it might even be enough in today’s final, but it won’t be enough in a tournament such as the upcoming U.S. Open. Capriati is mature enough to know that.

After Saturday’s match, she said: “Real top players probably would have closed me out.”

Huber wasn’t a bad player, She has lost three times now to Capriati, all of them tough matches. She catches a break on one line call in the first set tiebreaker Saturday and she probably wins. However, she is not exactly Seles or Graf.

Jennifer Capriati is close to where everyone expected her to be two years ago when she crashed the professional tour with a reported $10 million in endorsements already in the bank. She is on the brink of making her first successful title defense.

Maybe what she needs to take this next step is a coach.

“Nobody’s my coach right now,” she said. “I just have hitting partners. No coaches.”

Huh? Is this teen-ager a little too headstrong for a coach? Is Capriati to tennis coaches what George Steinbrenner is to baseball managers?

Is that all part of not being a kid anymore?