Tennis: Capriati wins marathon to take French Open title

By RONALD ATKIN

PARIS - The second Grand Slam of the year went Jennifer Capriati's way at the French Open in Paris, just as the first had done in Australia in January.

But Capriati will for ever remember the absorbing tussle she had to survive before outlasting an incredibly brave and obdurate Kim Clijsters 1-6 6-4 12-10 in two hours 21 minutes.

So Capriati remains on course to become the first woman to sweep all four major tournaments since Steffi Graf in 1988.

It was at Roland Garros 11 years ago that Capriati, then 14, reached the semi-finals. Since then the road has been long and frequently rocky but her resurrection and triumph this year is one of the most endearing tales in sport.

"I'm so happy I can't describe it," Capriati said moments after serving for the match for the third time in an utterly absorbing third set, she drove an unreturnable forehand wide of the tiring Clijsters' reach and leapt for joy.

Yet it had seemed Capriati's big Paris moment would turn to ashes. Taut and tense, she made the most appaling of starts, winning the opening game and then dropping the next seven.

To lose the first set in 29 minutes was definitely not part of the strategy but she could have expected nothing else after dumping so many shots into the netting.

Clijsters, who had been welcomed on court with a rendition of "Happy Birthday, Kim" from a large group of soccer-style, chanting Belgian supporters, promptly celebrated the 18th birthday she reached on Friday by exceeding Capriati's renowned power of shot and striking an impeccable length.

Capriati might not have been at her best in that opening set but Clijsters' form was beyond combating.

After Clijsters, appearing in her first Grand Slam final and watched by her boyfriend, the Australian Davis Cup player Lleyton Hewitt, had won the opening game of the second set, Capriati decided it was time to remove the plastic wrapping from a new racket.

This served the purpose of at least halting the rot as she finally held two games in succession, to the joy of Capriati's parents and brother as they willed her to fight her way back into the contest.

Everything had been laid out for a coronation, with the trophy to be presented by the seven-times champion of France, Chris Evert, but Clijsters was not so much raining on the occasion as hitting it with a typhoon, to the delight of her supporters.

After again dropping serve, for the fourth time in the match, Capriati finally got her recovery under way as Clijsters unwisely placed too much reliance on drop shots in a bid to expose Capriati's lack of speed around court.

The 25-year-old from Florida managed to run most of them down and built on another service break to level the match after 62 minutes.

So the stage was set for what turned out to be one of the most absorbing and compelling sets in the history of the women's game.

It endured for 77 minutes and contained a flood of glorious shots, brave running, unforgettable rallies and a host of chances spurned by both women to settle this final much earlier.

Capriati opened it by breaking in the opening game with a ferocious high volley to which even the fleet Belgian had no reply.

At once, Clijsters broke back to still the hopes of Capriati's followers. Instead, the decider settled into a war of nerves as the finalists started to hold serve with increasing ease.

But, after Clijsters had gone ahead 5-4, every time Capriati stepped up to serve it was also to stay in the match. One false move and she would have been doomed to a defeat that nobody had been expecting against the 12th seed.

By now, too, there was the hazard of double-faults creeping in as both women began to tire and the final became the most gripping since Monica Seles outlasted Steffi Graf 10-8 in the third set in 1992.

Clijsters, the daughter of a top Belgian footballer, came within two points of one of the sensational results of all time as Capriati, 5-6 down, struggled to cling on to her serve. But her nerve held and Clijsters was to get no closer than two points from glory, then or subsequently.

The first of the major swings occurred in the next game. Another unwise drop shot by Clijsters, which trundled into the net, offered Capriati a break point which was gifted to her as the Belgian teenager drove a backhand too long.

So Capriati merely needed to hold serve to clinch it. The effort was beyond her in a tense game in which Clijsters three times wasted break points with poor shots. On the fourth occasion, however, it was Capriati who obliged by projecting a backhand just beyond the baseline.

Four games were to go by, with the set level at 9-9, before Capriati engineered her next chance. Clijsters sent down a double-fault, a backhand error and then attempted another drop shot for which Capriati was eagerly waiting, flicking it away to hold three points for a 10-9 lead.

She needed only one, plus the assistance of the umpire who ruled that the next rally had concluded with a Capriati forehand which landed on the baseline, rather than just over it as Clijsters claimed.

But again Capriati found the ability to hold serve for the match beyond her. The brave Clijsters, going for every ball and scorning safety play, levelled at 10-10 and achieved it with yet another drop shot.

Capriati got to the ball, popped it up and stood at the net as her opponent's forehand struck the tape, looping over her head.

Yet again Capriati regrouped and yet again the Clijsters serve, now decidedly wavery, let her down. This time she needed only one break point to do it and for a third time served for the title.

On this occasion a counterattack was beyond the teenager. Capriati missed one match point with a mistimed backhand but made no mistake on the next to lift the Coupe Suzanne Lenglen.

As Evert, accompanied by the Olympic sprinter, Maurice Greene, made the presentation to the woman who held her as an idol, Capriati admitted, "I never thought I would be standing here."

Perhaps not, but she deserved it, as brother Steven and father Stefano pushed their way to courtside to hug and kiss the champion.

- INDEPENDENT