Jennifer Capriati’s run to the French Open title in 2001 was the stuff of dreams.
By the turn of the millennium, a tennis prodigy who burst onto the scene and turned pro at the age of 13 a decade prior, had faced more than her fair share of ups and downs.
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With the weight of hefty expectations on her shoulders as a teenager, Capriati set a number of records in her early years as she stormed to the semifinals of Roland Garros on her debut in 1990.
She later became the youngest-ever player to reach the top 10, aged 14 years and 235 days.
While Grand Slam titles eluded Capriati in the 90s, despite deep runs to the last four of Wimbledon and the US Open alongside the French Open, she secured Olympic glory by defeating top-seeded Steffi Graf in the gold-medal match at Barcelona ’92 aged just 16.
But burnout soon followed, and although she was ranked ninth in the world at the time, the American ended up leaving the WTA Tour in 1993 to finish high school.
Capriati played only one match in 1994, losing in the first round at the Advanta Championships of Philadelphia. She fell off the rankings in June, and did not play at all in 1995.
As her once promising tennis career faltered, Capriati’s personal life also played out in the press.
At age 17, she was charged with shoplifting a $15 ring from a mall kiosk, which she later described as accidental. The story was leaked to the press at the time.
In 1994, when she was 18, Capriati was charged with misdemeanour marijuana possession, and subsequently entered a drug counselling programme.
Still in her early 20s, she returned to the court in 1996, and mounted a career comeback for the ages in the years that followed, as she climbed the rankings to reach the top 20 once again.
By 2000, Capriati had returned to the big time, and finished the year as the 14th best player in the world.
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That success opened the door for what became a simply superb 2001 season, which finally delivered two long-awaited Grand Slam titles.
The first came at the Australian Open in January, where a 12th-seeded Capriati beat world No. 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets.
She was the lowest seed to ever win the title, and also the first player since Tracy Austin in 1979 to defeat the top two ranked players in straight sets at a major, having dispatched No. 2 ranked Lindsay Davenport in the semis.
What followed at the French Open was a classic.
Seeded fourth at Roland Garros, having already scooped a clay court crown at the Charleston Open, Capriati defeated Serena Williams in the quarterfinals, top seed Hingis in the semifinals and Belgian teenager Kim Clijsters in the showpiece to win her second consecutive Grand Slam title.
Her 1-6, 6-4, 12-10 win over Clijsters also made history, as it featured the longest-ever last set in a French Open final.
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The third set clocked in at 77 minutes to wrap a pulsating match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes in total.
On four different occasions, Capriati was two points away from being defeated, but completed a stunning comeback that made her only the fifth woman in history to win the Australian Open and the French Open consecutively.
She also secured a cheque for £403,000 in the process.
“I’m just waiting to wake up from this dream,” Capriati told the crowd at Roland Garros after her win.
“It doesn’t seem like reality right now.”
Back-to-back Grand Slam titles in 2001 signalled the greatest chapter of a fairytale comeback, and that success was followed by a short-lived stint as the No. 1 ranked player in the world come October.
A second Australian Open title even followed to begin the 2002 season, but injuries plagued Capriati during the latter stages of her career.
By 2004, one of the most remarkable tennis stories fizzled out.
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But a player who burst onto the scene as a 13-year-old prodigy will be remembered most for getting over the line on the Grand Slam stage three times, and that legendary 77-minute French Open final set lives long in the memory of all who witnessed it unfold.
The 2025 French Open is set to get underway on Sunday, May 25.
