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Capriati completes comeback with first Grand Slam
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刚刚结束的澳大利亚网球公开赛女单决赛爆出冷门，美国选手卡普里亚蒂以2：0击败头号种子欣吉斯，第一次捧起了澳网冠军奖杯。她的职业网球排名也将上升到世界第七位。
DAZED with disbelief by her improbable achievement, Jennifer Capriati wore a grin as she hoisted a Grand Slam championship trophy over her head for the first time.
The crowd roared. Her father beamed. Her comeback was complete.
A heavy underdog and a sentimental favourite, Capriati upset top-seeded Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3 on January 27 to win the Australian Open.
It was the most captivating moment in a tumultuous career for Capriati, the former child prodigy (天才) who left the women's tour in the mid-1990s because of drug and personal problems.
Capriati, 24, entered the tournament seeded 12th and might be the most unlikely women's major champion since the Open era began in 1968. She beat defending champion Lindsay Davenport and four-time champ Monica Seles en route to the final, then outplayed Hingis from the start.
When Capriati closed out the victory by slamming a backhand (反手击球) return winner on the first match point, she hopped up and down, grinned and cried with joy.
"I just couldn't believe it," she said. "I just thought, `Wow, the moment has finally come. Now I can enjoy it.'"
Capriati shook hands with Hingis, thrust her fists in the air and trotted over to her father and coach, Stefano. He happily rubbed her right arm -- the one that had just delivered a Grand Slam title. Then she went to her changeover chair and phoned her brother back home in Florida.
"Who would've thought I would have ever made it here after so much has happened?" Capriati told a supportive centre-court crowd during the trophy ceremony. "Dreams do come true if you keep believing in yourself. Anything can happen."
Capriati, whose troubles as a teenager made international headlines, was 17 when she dropped off the tour following the 1993 US Open. She went five years without winning a Grand Slam match.
But those days were a distant memory for Capriati and her family.
Her beaming father said: "I'm very proud. I've always felt proud of Jennifer."
On a gorgeous, cloudless day, Capriati was as perfect as the weather at the outset, racing to a 4-0 lead in just 12 minutes. She slugged boldly from the baseline but was accurate, too, playing 25 points before she hit a shot long.
"I thought, `Why be nervous? She has everything to lose. Just go for it,"' Capriati said.
Her newfound fitness was often evident. She repeatedly ran down Hingis' drop shots, including on the final point of the first set, when she raced forward and bunted a backhand winner into the corner.
The crowd was clearly on Capriati's side, with fans shouting out encouragement to her between points.
By the second set, Hingis' frustration was increasingly evident. In the second game, after barely ticking Capriati's serve, Hingis hurled her racket to the court and kicked it in anger.
"People said, `You won it already,' but I didn't say that," Hingis said. "I knew I had to beat a great player out there."
The defeat was only the second for Hingis in 35 matches at Melbourne Park since 1997.
Capriati beat Hingis for the first time in their six meetings.
"I hope to be in many more finals with you," Capriati told Hingis during the trophy ceremony. "You've had lots of times here, and I'm glad I finally got to be in one."
Capriati ranks with the most improbable of major champions. The only unseeded women's champion in the Open era was Chris O'Neil, who won the Australian Open in 1978, when many top players skipped the tournament.
Capriati will climb to seventh in next week's rankings, the first time she has been in the top 10 since January 16, 1994, when she was ninth.(SD-Agencies)
Jennifer Capriati
Age: 24
Lives: Wesley Chapel, Florida
Plays: right-handed, double-handed backhand
Grand Slam titles: 2001 Aussie Open
Australian Open record: 2001-final, 2000-semifinals, 1999-second round, 1997-first round, 1993-quarterfinals, 1992-quarterfinals
How Capriati got there:
First: Henrieta Nagyova 4-6, 6-2, 7-5
Second: Miriam Oremans 6-0, 6-2
Third: Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-0, 6-2
Fourth: Marta Marrero 7-5, 6-1
Quarters: Monica Seles 5-7, 6-4, 6-3
Semis: Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-4
Final: Martina Hingis 6-4, 6-3(SD-Agencies)
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