Top 5 Miami Finals, No. 4: Venus Williams d. Jennifer Capriati, 2001

This week, we're counting down the Top 5 Miami finals (see our Top 5 Indian Wells finals here)

• No. 5: Andy Murray d. David Ferrer, 2013
• No. 4: Venus Williams d. Jennifer Capriati, 2001
• No. 3: COMING SOON
• No. 2: COMING SOON
• No. 1: COMING SOON

The turn of the century was an electrifying time for women’s tennis. Venus, Serena, Steffi, Hingis, Capriati, Kournikova: They were among the warring stars who crossed over from the sports pages to the celebrity pages—and the cover of Time magazine—as they fought each tooth and nail for the game’s big titles.

No match of that era was harder fought than the 2001 final of what was then known as the Ericsson Open. It was an especially hot and humid day, even for Key Biscayne, and it featured the two best players of that season, Venus Williams, then 20, and Jennifer Capriati, who had just turned 25.

These two Americans would split the four Grand Slams in 2001. When they met in Miami, Capriati had just won her long-awaited first major title, at the Australian Open, and she would follow it up with another, at Roland Garros, three months later. But Venus would come on strong in the year’s second half, winning Wimbledon and the US Open. They would trade the No. 1 ranking back and forth more much of the next season.

This tournament also came just a week after Venus had withdrawn from her semifinal against her sister Serena at Indian Wells. The ensuing controversy swirled around the sisters as they traveled to Miami. Capriati beat Serena in the quarterfinals at Key Biscayne, while Venus knocked out top seed Martina Hingis in the semis.

In the final, Venus and Capriati contended with each other and the heat. The tennis, perhaps not surprisingly, wasn’t pristine; Venus made 71 errors.

“It was so hot that it took a lot out of both of us,” Venus said. “If it had been a cooler day, it probably would have been much easier to go out there and run, run, run.”

I thought I had it, it was just really, really close,” she said. “Those match points didn’t go my way.

Despite the conditions, neither player wilted or gave a competitive inch. Capriati won the first set with a steady baseline attack; Venus, who rushed the net and volleyed effectively, returned the favor in the second. In the third, though, her comeback looked like it would fall short, as Capriati reached match point eight times across two different games. On one of them, Capriati raised her arms as her backhand appeared to go for a title-clinching winner, only to hear it called out.

“I thought I had it, it was just really, really close,” she said. “Those match points didn’t go my way.”

In the deciding tiebreaker, it was Venus’ turn to reach multiple match points, and Capriati’s turn to save them—three of them, anyway, before her forehand found the net on the fourth. Venus had her second, and so far final, title in Miami.

“I just kept getting back in it one way or another,” Venus said afterward. “I didn’t feel like I was going to lose. When I was facing those match points, I just kept telling myself the right thing to do.”