Young tennis stars lose carefree teen-age years

  Adam Karon Karon is missing out on the
beautiful summer weather to save money so he can spend four days in
the rain at Wimbledon next year. Send comments and encouragement to
[email protected].

Many of us would not trade our teenage years for anything.
Summer baseball, spring soccer, lazy days at the beach, special
nights at high school dances and building homecoming floats are
memories as sweet as a smooth backhand volley.

Few of us would choose to miss out on life from the age of 13 to
23. That is what Jennifer Capriati did, and you might have done it
too, if you had developed a lightning forehand and a deadly drop
shot. It also would help if your father were overbearing, and
perhaps you ignored your friends in favor of five-hour practice
sessions and grueling weekend tournaments. Capriati is the poster
girl for tennis players skipping college, high school, and even
junior high for the chance to pursue a dream and make millions of
dollars.

Capriati shocked the tennis world, and teeny-bopping New Kids on
the Block fans everywhere, when she officially became a
professional tennis player in 1989 at the age of 13.

While most kids her age were wearing Cross Colors and Airwalks,
Capriati’s sponsors at Fila were fitting her for tiny tennis
skirts. When she was fighting to become the youngest Grand Slam
semi-finalist in history at the 1990 French Open, her peers were
fighting over who got to slow dance with Johnny Cool-Guy at the
junior high sock-hop.

Capriati was so young and innocent that, when asked what she
would do after a big win, she responded, “I want to go home
and play with my new puppy.” As fans, we thought it was so
cute. In retrospect, it was so sad.

Much has been made recently of the incredible numbers of high
school basketball players leaping to the NBA. Critics point out
that these 18-year-olds do not know how to handle the millions of
dollars they could claim as top lottery picks. They argue that
those who do not make an NBA roster are left with no education, no
money, and no direction in life.

When Capriati was 13 she signed a $3 million deal with Diadora.
I wonder if she had learned to write in cursive, let alone handle
millions of dollars. I don’t know about you, but when I was
13 a few bucks meant I could buy another pack of baseball cards.
Capriati could have bought the baseball card store.

Those attacking the NBA for allowing youngsters to skip college
argue that young men are often ill suited to handle the pressure
that comes with being a national sports icon. Or worse, they may
not be drafted at all and without college eligibility lose any
chance of establishing a profession. This argument rarely surfaces
in the sport of tennis.

Why are tennis players outside the scope of attention when it
comes to premature professionalism in sports? While basketball
players must wait until they are 18, and baseball players must be
at least 16, tennis stars can jump from gym class to clay courts
the month they turn 14.

The majority of the teen queens come from middle-class
backgrounds, and maybe that is why the media and social critics do
not react. But perhaps this lack of media outcry should increase
the uneasiness so many feel towards what has now become a
sanctioned practice.

If an inner-city basketball or football player turns pro to help
support his family, he should be lauded as a hero who achieved his
dream for the benefit of others. But what about the likes of
Capriati, Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters and the countless
others who leave their teenage years in the rear view mirror for a
chance to play center court at Wimbledon? I wonder if they regret
their decisions.

There was probably a time in her life when Capriati wished she
had never seen a fuzzy green ball. I am not one to argue that the
pressure of professional tennis drove her to rebellion, which
peaked with an arrest for shoplifting, because I believe that the
troubles she faced are not entirely unique to teenage girls. At the
same time, it must have been utterly embarrassing to have her
trials and tribulations published on a daily basis. Some would
consider Capriati lucky.

Former tennis phenom Tracy Austin is an example of what the
tennis establishment can do to the career of a superstar. In 1979,
at the age of 16, Austin became the youngest woman to win the U.S.
Open. Against competitors who were nearly twice her age, Austin won
that event for the second time in 1981. Three years later she was
out of tennis, forever remembered as a victim of the tennis system
that pushes young girls beyond their capabilities.

Austin’s story is not unusual, but we rarely hear about
her fellow fallouts. I wonder what happens to those who give away
their high school and college years yet never achieve the success
Austin and Capriati did.

In an era where major sports are coming under increasing
scrutiny for the rising number of teenagers participating at the
professional level, tennis is sneaking out the back door with a
clean, white, neatly pressed skirt and a confident smirk on its
youthful face. No one seems to mind that tennis stars often face
the pressures of professional life much too early. That is probably
because we rarely hear about those who do not make it on the court.
They fade like a tennis ball left in the sun, and all we see are
the rare success stories of Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters,
and in the end, Jennifer Capriati.