14/07/2012 08:43 CEST - Rassegna Internazionale

Un tributo a Jennifer Capriati, verso la Hall of Fame (The New York Times)

More than 22 years ago, when Jennifer Capriati was tennis’s fastest rising star, she made a splash on the cover of Sports Illustrated with the screaming headline “And She’s Only 13!”

Early last week, Capriati, now 36, made a much more subdued debut on Twitter, writing in her first tweet, “Yes it’s me! Hi everyone. Finally on the twitter:) Hope to see u in Newport @TennisHalloFame # tennis.”

This week a new phase begins in a life that has been broken up into vastly different existences in less than four decades: first she was the child prodigy, then the teenage star, a rebellious has-been, an almost-been, a champion and then — quite suddenly — she retired.

That final phase, retirement, has been a great mystery around Capriati, who came into the public’s consciousness in 1990 and won gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics before a tormented private life tore her away from the game in the mid-90s sans the one thing she was expected to have: a Grand Slam title.

“I know she still wanted to play,” Martina Navratilova said in a phone interview from Paris Wednesday. “But the body didn’t let her. It’s a shame when the body tells the athlete to stop, instead of the heart.”

On Saturday, Capriati, along with the Brazilian star Gustavo Kuerten, will be inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I. The honor is not only a deserved one for the Brooklyn native and lifelong Floridian, who won three major titles in 2001 and 2002, but also a re-emergence into the tennis public, which she has mostly avoided since playing her last professional match, in 2004.
“We’re doing everything Saturday,” Capriati’s younger brother, Steven, said via phone Wednesday. Long at her side as a hitting partner and adviser, Steven has been handling Jennifer’s day-to-day activities and serving as a media handler of sorts before the induction in Rhode Island.

What the induction for Capriati will signify is rather hard to predict. In fewer than 20 posts on Twitter, the introverted former world No. 1 mentions God, insomnia, looking forward to seeing fans and old friends and expressing nerves over the speech she will give Saturday.

Steven said she would not talk to the news media before Saturday.

But culling through her shortlist of tweets, perhaps the most intriguing one was this one, written late Tuesday night: “There will be such a wonderful surprise for all the fans in newport. i can’t wait. It will be so special..”

What that might mean is anyone’s guess, but Steven didn’t hesitate to hint.

“We’ve been talking with Oprah,” he said from his office in Tampa, Fla., where he works in private wealth management. “We’ll do everything in Newport and then take it from there.”

What it is, exactly, is hard to say. Jennifer Capriati has stayed away from the commentators’ booth, and has not worked — at least publicly — with any current players on a coaching or advisory basis. She has rarely attended tournaments or tennis social events, instead sticking around the Tampa home she owns.

“I haven’t seen her in years,” said Navratilova, who played doubles with Capriati as recently as 2002. “Maybe the last time was three years ago at the Open,” she said referring to the United States Open.

In 2007, three years after Capriati played her final match (but still without an official retirement announcement), she gave an interview to The Daily News in which she talked of depression and killing herself. “If I don’t have (tennis), who am I? What am I?” she was quoted as saying in the article. The feature wove in Capriati’s battle with depression with a feeling of abandonment from the tennis establishment, which she has never had a rosy relationship with to start.

Then, in 2009, Capriati appeared in just one episode of the short-lived reality show “The Superstars,” citing an injury as the reason for her pulling out of the physical-challenge show. It was a year later that news broke that Capriati had been rushed to the hospital because of a reported prescription drug overdose.

Since then, Capriati has made small attempts at reclaiming a sort of normalcy in her post-tennis life. She appeared alongside her mother, Denise, in the spring of 2011, on a Phoenix morning talk show to spread awareness for tinnitus, a hearing disorder which Denise suffers from.

It was in that interview that Capriati said she had started “a new chapter in her life,” though she did not elaborate.

Fila, the clothing company that sponsored Capriati through the second phase of her career, no longer calls her a client, though the brand says it is open to bringing her back.

“We continue to remain the biggest fans of Jennifer and her contributions to the legacy of the Fila brand,” a spokeswoman said in an e-mail. “Our doors always remain open to Jennifer for conversation when she is ready.”

What Capriati appears to be attempting to do is ready herself for what is sure to be an onslaught of attention come this weekend.

Around the game, Capriati’s peers are praising her. Andy Roddick told reporters Wednesday that he was happy to see Capriati “get the attention she deserves.” “The everyday Joe knew Jennifer Capriati,” he added.

Justin Gimelstob, who trained with Capriati at Saddlebrook Tennis Academy and is now a commentator for the Tennis Channel, echoed Roddick’s sentiments in an e-mail from South Africa.

“She was an immense talent, was put under stifling scrutiny, and ended up accomplishing so much that she is a very deserved Hall of Famer,” Gimelstob wrote. “The way she worked through adversity, persevered, and what she achieved was remarkable. I have nothing but the utmost respect for her.”