Conchita vs Jennifer Capriati Preview

February 19th 2003

by J.M.

After a devastating start to the year, Conchita Martinez seems to be back to the form that allowed her to make the final in Bali and the semifinals in Switzerland, where she upset many higher ranked players, in the later stages of last year. In 2003, she had fallen victim to two players ranked well bellow her in Olga Barabanschikova and Australian Samantha Stosur. After taking a couple of weeks off, however, she won consecutive matches for the first time this year in Doha last week as the number 7^th seed before retiring against Russian Lina Krasnouratskya, after being down 7-6 4-0, with an ankle injury. Ironically, Lina had to forfeit her match at the Australian Open in 2002 in the 3^rd set against Conchita with a similar injury!

Nonetheless, Conchita has come back this week in strong form after defeating Rita Grande of Italy in straight sets and the number 8^th seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece. Her next opponent in the quarter-finals is against the number 3 seed, Jennifer Capriati, who still remains without a title since the 2002 Australian Open.

Player Stats 2003:

Capriati

WTA Tour Tournaments Played: 2

WTA Tour Record: 0-2

Tournament Titles: 0

Hardcourt Record: 0-2

Highest Ranked Player Defeated: 0

Martinez

WTA Tour Tournaments Played: 3

WTA Tour Record: 2-3

Tournament Titles: 0

Hardcourt Record: 2-3

Highest Ranked Player Defeated: Jelena Kostanic (Doha)

Style of Play:

Capriati: Jennifer is known as one of the “big hitters” of women’s tennis at the moment. She can hit her serve at very high speeds but has quite an unusual service action concerning her ball toss. Subsequently, double faults are now a common feature of her game. Her best stroke would be her forehand as she can generate a lot of pace and angle if she is in the right shape of mind. Her backhand too is quite solid. She had not won a match this season, possibly due to an eye injury, until she defeated up-and-coming Russian sensation, Svetlana Kuznetsova.

Martinez: Conchita is a typical clay court player. She hits her strokes with amazing amounts of topspin that allow her to get back into rallies and put her opponents on the back foot. Her slice backhand in particular can cause a lot of damage as it is often disguised so as to allow Conchita to dropshot with success. One of her main weaknesses would also be her service action and her ball toss as she can double fault quite easily if the ball toss is not exactly right. However, as noted in the French Open, when she played Jelena Dokic in the 2^nd round, by the French commentator, she has never relied on her serve to win the matches so this should not be too much of a problem for her. After defeating 8^th seed Daniilidou in 2^nd round, she should be high on confidence and go into the match pretty relaxed.

Head-to-Head Record:

Amazingly, Martinez has a 3-2 edge in head-to-head records against Capriati, including their last encounter that was only last year!:

In what was considered to be a huge upset, Conchita absolutely demolished Jennifer in their last meeting in Switzerland last year. Her moon balls and ability to keep the ball in play was simply too good for the American who left the court dazed and stunned at such a scoreline! Conchita simply outplayed her and went on to the semi-finals before bowing out to eventual champion and hometown favourite, Patty Schnyder. Now if Conchita was to keep the ball in play and play percentage tennis against Jennifer like the way she did in Zurich, then she has a fantastic chance to win the match and move into the semi-finals. However, the match could be very difficult as they both have played each other enough times to know their styles of play.

Prediction:

Martinez d. Capriati 6-4 6-3

Good luck Conchita!

Visit the Conchita Martinez page here

Betting box Only one click and you're in the sports zone soccer tennis formula 1 boxing basketball a. football golf ice hockey horses specials FOLLOW YOUR INSTINCT