!103784954 By Pete Bodo
NEW YORK—When Beatrice Capra lost at the USTA 18 Nationals a few weeks ago, she was utterly disheartened. She turned to her mother, Laurie MacGill, and said: "That was my last nationals as a junior, what's left for me?"
MacGill, having been a tour player back in the heyday of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova, replied, "Don't be so disappointed, Treesy. You never know what's around the next corner."
"You always say that, mom. What if it's. . . nothing?"
Beatrice needn't have worried. She was back at home in pastoral Ellicott City, Md., for all of three days when the phone rang. It was a USTA official, inviting her to play in the U.S. Open wildcard playoff tournament for top juniors. "I kind of went in there thinking it would be another match before the junior U.S. Open, and it will be no pressure. I already lost my chance to get a wildcard (by not winning the 18 Nationals), so this is just a bonus. I just went in there and played so freely. Each match I won gave me more confidence. So after I won the wildcard, I was pretty excited."
There was more around this particular corner. Here at the National Tennis Center, she beat Karolina Sprem in the first round, and today she took out the No. 18 seed, Aravane Rezai. What more remains around the particular corner Capra is navigating remains to be seen; the next obstacle—or opportunity—in her path will almost certainly be the player she's always admired for her competitive spirit, Maria Sharapova.
"That's going to be a tough one," Chris Evert told me via telephone, just minutes after Capra won. Evert had been glued to the television in her Florida home throughout the match, and she liked what she saw. "I could see in her eyes that she was hungry. She reminds me a little of. . . me. She's solid as a rock, and she has great composure."
The composure was evident throughout Capra's match with Rezai's, even when things weren't going well for her. This was one of those gems that so often go unremarked amid the sound and fury of the first few days. I was lucky to target it and witness it, as I hadn't really watched Rezai since her big win in Madrid, and as an American journalist I also have a special interest in our domestic players.
My first impression of Capra was underwhelming. She presented a nice image, in a Seaworld kind of way, sporting a sleeveless, mermaid blue-and-yellow top with discreet, fin-like epaulets, matching, flourescent green wristbands, and a white skirt. Rezai, by contrast, opted for basic whites, with the visor that always suggests that it's all business.
Capra is a wispy 5-9, 137 pounds (and that's after the 20 pounds Evert told me they had managed to apply to her frame). Rezai is thickly built, but those heavy thighs move her around surprisingly well, set her up firmly, and add a little extra oomph to those dangerous, long strokes (does anyone take the ball further out in front?). Rezai never met a ball she doesn't want to knock silly, which makes her an intimidating opponent for a youngster like Capra, in her Grand Slam debut.
Capra broke Rezai the first time she served, but surrendered her next service game. She appeared to be struggling with the sun. Capra has an odd glitch when she serves. She pivots on her left foot, for no apparent reason, and that served to affect her service toss a number of times, resulting in a false alarm as she caught the ball instead of hitting it. But it also became clear quickly that Capra has substantial skills and a sneaky, easily overlooked athleticism.
This was a match with numerous service breaks, but that was due less to mutual incompetence than shifts of momentum most easily explained by two broad tendencies: The Rezai express hurtles at impressive speed, but there's always a signal failure or switching screw-up somewhere down the line to the next station. And Capra was obliged to fight the same battle as any Grand Slam debutante, that bitter, never entirely settled battle between courage and fear, between aggression and passivity.
"When Treesy feels pressured, she tends to play defensively, down the middle, and then she tries to open up the court as the point goes on," Evert told me. "One thing we've been trying to do is get her to be more confident and aggressive. My academy has five girls playing in different events at the Open. Four of them are power players. We tell them over and over to try to keep the ball in the court. Capra, the fifth, is different. We're always telling her to get more rather than less aggressive."
You can see why they would consul Capra thus. She has terrific groundstrokes; she's one of those players who addresses and hits the ball in away that's simply a pleasure to behold, especially when she's on the run, or under attack. She's equally good on both sides, although she conforms to the unwritten rule mandating that while the backhand is more reliable, the forehand more dangerous. This is a young lady who has no fear of going down the line with the backhand—or forehand. She uses all of the court, and already does it wisely.
The trick, when you're playing a woman like Rezai, is to keep the faith, trusting that she'll run off the rails at least few times in a match. As much of a shortcoming as that is, you also have to give credit to Rezai for playing all points with equal courage. At times, this unnerved Capra. After the ingenue won the first set with a break at 6-5, she immediately lost serve. When she made two errors to start the next game she looked toward her mother and, for the third time in the match, shrugged like a teenager unable to come up with a good reason for not having done the dishes.
Rezai built a 3-0 lead, but Capra recovered her composure and resolve. From that stage on, it was a fine match, with both women playing postive, forcing tennis. Capra built a nice 4-1 lead in the final set, thanks partly to poor serving by Rezai. But the French player fought back, and broke in the seventh game to get back on serve, 3-4. Capra broke right back in a long game ending with a Rezai double fault. Unlike Rezai, Capra served well in the closing stages, when it most mattered, and she closed it out with a solid hold.
!103784955 Statistically, the women converted an identical 64 percent of their first serves and the same number of break opportunities (6 of 13, for 46 per cent). Rezai hit a bigger serve (113 MPH to Capra's 106), but Capra averaged a higher speed on both her serves (98 to 91 on first serves, 80 to 78 on seconds). This is a deceptive stat, because tricky spin decreases service speed, and in any event placement is a more critical factor than pace at all but the outer reaches of the radar gun. Rezai made nearly twice as many winners (34 to 18), but 49 unforced errors to Capra's 30. The stats suggest that the players matched up well, and that performance under stress—on big points—was a critical factor. Rezai won more points, 94-91, but Capra won a precious few more of the big ones.
Even before today, Capra was torn about pursuing a higher education, so she put off college for at least a year to test the waters of the pro tour. "I'm always going to keep college an option," she said. "I don't think—I mean, unless I win this tournament, which is a little extreme. . . But yeah, I'm definitely going to keep college an option."
I'm in a minority here, but I believe Capra can play with Sharapova. If she can return serve and get Sharapova moving, she'll be able to put her under considerable pressure. Capra is flexible, has good feel, and excellent timing. While she's not greased lightning, she plays defense with great anticipation and a developing ability to transition quickly to offense. If Capra can take the serve out of the equation—meaning if she serves well and Sharapova doesn't—the Melanie Oudin comparisons will begin.
In fact, they're already underway. She's already been asked if she watched Oudin's run last year, to which she promptly replied: "I watched every second of it, yeah."
We are now taking suggestions for an inscription for Capra's shoes, "Believe" and "Courage" having already been taken.