Capriati Henin 2003 USO on TTC Now

[JoelDali]

These two are effing badasses.

Wow!

This is what the WTA of today lacks.

[pc1]

Originally Posted by JoelDali

These two are effing badasses.

Wow!

This is what the WTA of today lacks.

This match had everything. Great play, drama and a great ending.

[sheets]

Heres a link to the first segment of the match on youtube the entire thing is up by the looks of it. One heck of a rally just to start off with.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mc2KnQFrHc

[TonyB]

Yup, I'm watching the match too.

Amazing how consistently hard they hit the ball. That was a good time for the WTA.

[JoelDali]

If Federer and Henin had angelic harmonious sex and produced a child it would be an alien phenom tennis player.

God I love her.

[thalivest]

Womens tennis today was so much better than it is now. Capriati or Henin playing like they did in 2003 would be the best player in the World today. It just shows how much better Serena was back then compared to now as except for Henin on clay she dominated that field which inluded herself, Venus, Henin, Clijsters, Davenport, and even Capriati playing at a higher level than anyone is today including Serena.

[TonyB]

And if you remember, Henin had to play the very next day against Clijsters after her 3-hour ordeal with Capriati.

And she beat Clijsters in straight sets to win the USO 2003 championship!

[pc1]

I actually think Henin had overall fewer weaknesses than Federer except that Federer relatively speaking, had more overall power on the men's side than Henin on the women's side. Strokewise, Henin's backhand is leagues above Federer's. It's possibly the best one handed women's backhand ever.

Henin could on occasion be overpowered by Sharapova, Serena and Venus and Kim. Of course Kim seemed to always lose to Henin in big matches.

That was an amazing high quality match.

The drama was ridiculously high.

[thalivest]

Clijsters from 2003 onwards could not overpower Henin. Maybe before spring 2003 but definitely never after. Henin most times was the bigger hitter of the two. The only women who hit harder than Henin in her prime were Serena, Venus, and sometimes Sharapova. Clijsters on her absolute best days had more consistent groundstrokes, made fewer errors than Henin, could match or slightly best the tremendous speed and defensive play of Henin, and could maybe match her power. Those are the only reasons she had any chance and got some odd wins the day she was mentally zoned in, but she certainly couldnt overpower Henin the way Serena or Maria on a fast surface could do sometimes.

[pc1]

Originally Posted by thalivest

Clijsters from 2003 onwards could not overpower Henin. Maybe before spring 2003 but definitely never after. Henin most times was the bigger hitter of the two. The only women who hit harder than Henin in her prime were Serena, Venus, and sometimes Sharapova. Clijsters on her absolute best days had more consistent groundstrokes, made fewer errors than Henin, could match or slightly best the tremendous speed and defensive play of Henin, and could maybe match her power. Those are the only reasons she had any chance and got some odd wins the day she was mentally zoned in, but she certainly couldnt overpower Henin the way Serena or Maria on a fast surface could do sometimes.

On a different note, it's amazing to me how Capriati lost two incredible high quality women's semis at the US Open 12 years apart.

Capriati was some hitter of the ball. What a talent! What could have been.

[JoelDali]

Its amazing to think how far the mental gap between Safina and Henin are.

Dinara is just...wow.

[rod99]

Originally Posted by pc1

On a different note, it's amazing to me how Capriati lost two incredible high quality women's semis at the US Open 12 years apart.

Capriati was some hitter of the ball. What a talent! What could have been.

don't forget the following year when she lost to dementieva 7-6 in the third in the semis.

[thalivest]

Originally Posted by rod99

don't forget the following year when she lost to dementieva 7-6 in the third in the semis.

I think she would have won in 1991 and 2003 had she won the semis though. She had beaten Navratilova on grass at Wimbledon so would have been able to beat her on hard courts at the Open, and even though Navratilova put on a great performance in beating Graf she really didnt play that well at all in the final. 2003 is presuming Kim had even half the kind of collapsing performance she did in the final if she were playing Capriati instead, which isnt certain as she seems more spooked by Justine specifically, but Capriati didnt look in rough shape physically at the end of her semifinal like Justine was going into that final.

2004 is different. By 2004 she was really a shadow of her 2001-2003 form by that point and did well to make the semis of two slams that year considering that while she was still a contender it was clear she wasnt really the same player anymore. Kuznetsova was lucky in the semis vs Davenport (the person who really should have won the U.S Open that year) but then came out on fire in the final and completely overpowered Dementieva who had herself completely overpowered Capriati from the baseline in the semis (it was 7-6 in the 3rd but the winners were 41 to 11) so I doubt Capriati would have had much shot in the final in retrospect. She also was lucky to even be in the semis that year, aided by some shady line calls in the quarters vs Serena.

Had Capriati won either the 91 or 2003 U.S Open semis her career might have panned out better. 91 is a pretty obvious potential turning point. As for 2003 she might have been alot more motivated to keep working harder and staying in top shape had she won that 03 U.S open, which would have probably led to her continuing to play at a higher level in 2004 than she actually was, and might have also prevented the career ending shoulder injury.