Jennifer Capriati has been part of the Fila family for the past six years, but
the former No. 1 is now looking for a new home to hang her clothes. The
clothing company's contract negotiations with Capriati have hit a clothesline
over the amount of her annual guarantee. Consequently, Fila announced it will
not renew Capriati's contract when it expires on Friday.
"Our agreement (with Capriati) is up at the end of this year and we have
mutually agreed to move on," Mark Westerman, Fila vice president of global
marketing told Daniel Kaplan of The SportsBusiness Journal. "We wish her the
best of luck. We will always consider her part of the Fila family."
The three-time Grand Slam champion initially began wearing Fila in 1999. In
October of 2001, Capriati capitalized on her compelling comeback story that
generated global attention for Fila by signing a three-year contract extension
with the company. In addition to the deal that paid her a reported $1.5 million
annually, Capriati cruised off in a new red Ferrari courtesy of Fila, which
rewarded Capriati with the sports car car for reaching No. 1.
The 28-year-old Capriati has been Fila's best-known tennis champion since
11-time Grand Slam champion Bjorn Borg wore the popular pin-stripe Fila shirt
while winning Wimbledon five straight years.
While Capriati remains a popular player with a loyal fan following, it's quite
possible Fila did not believe Capriati's recent results warranted the
seven-figure annual guarantee Capriati was reportedly seeking. Fila countered
with a contract offer that featured an annual six-figure guarantee, leaving the
two sides "wide apart on terms for a renewal" according to the SportsBusiness
Journal.
While the combative Capriati plays entertaining, crowd-pleasing tennis and has
been a Grand Slam contender on all surfaces in recent years, she has not
consistently matched contemporaries, including Lindsay Davenport, in winning
tournament titles. Capriati has claimed just two tournament titles in the past
three years — the 2002 Australian Open and the 2003 New Haven — and has
collected only 14 tournament titles in her career. To be fair, Capriati sat out
the 1995 season while dealing with personal issues and has had to combat
injuries in recent years. But Capriati's lack of commitment to her
conditioning, combined with her inability to seize opportunities in recent
majors, has prevented her from raising another Grand Slam championship since
she successfully defended her Australian Open title.
There’s no denying Capriati has been a fighter for much of her career in
battles both professional and personal, but the semifinal stage of the U.S.
Open has posed almost paralyzing pressure preventing her from completing
victories. Capriati has served for a place in the U.S. Open final five times in
three different matches — she failed to close out Monica Seles when serving
for a place in the 1991 final twice; served twice for a spot in the 2003 final
against Justine Henin-Hardenne in a match where she was two points from victory
on 10 different occasions before falling; and served for the match in
September's semifinal against Elena Dementieva before suffering a heart-
breaking 6-0, 2-6, 7-6(5) setback — and has failed to seize any of those
opportunities.
The 2001 Roland Garros champion beat Serena Williams in the Roland Garros
quarterfinals and entered the semifinal against Anastasia Myskina as the
favorite in June, but played tight, tentative tennis in succumbing, 6-2, 6-2.
Capriati did not drop a set in cruising to the Wimbledon quarterfinals, but
then barely broke a sweat as Serena swept her off the court, 6-1, 6-1, in one
of the worst Grand Slam thrashings of Capriati's career.
The decision to drop Capriati represents a significant shift in Fila's
marketing strategy, which recently ended its 22-year run as the clothing
sponsor of the U.S. Open.
In May of 2002, Fila signed Kim Clijsters to a clothing contract with Fila.
The Clijsters signing was a major coup for Fila and gave the company three of
the top 10-ranked women in the world at that time in Capriati, Clijsters and
then ninth-ranked Jelena Dokic.
Now, Fila — which still has reigning U.S. Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova
under contract — plans to reinforce its status as a tennis brand, but rather
than pursue high-ranked players it will reportedly focus on top juniors. It is
similar to the successful strategy Babolat employed in recruiting leading
juniors — including Andy Roddick — to use its racquets and strings.
While Fila failed to get Capriati to sign along the dotted line, it would be
foolish to write off a champion who has produced so many inspired comebacks in
the past and sometimes seems to play her best tennis when facing the least
expectations.
Capriati needs only to look at another American former child prodigy — Andre
Agassi — for inspiration. Like Agassi, Capriati was a highly-hyped young
player who produced almost immediate results. Like Agassi, Capriati plays an
assertive baseline brand of tennis based on the ability to take the ball early
and paint the corners of the court with penetrating groundstrokes. Like Agassi,
Capriati has been both an endorsement and ratings winner, whose matches have
generated some of the highest ratings in ESPN history. Like Agassi, Capriati
is a capable contender on all surfaces, but Capriati has yet to show Agassi's
commitment to conditioning off the court that would enable her to fully exploit
her superior ground game.
The question the 10th-ranked Capriati now faces is can she re-dedicate herself
to her career and strengthen her body and mind enough to craft yet another
comeback? Or has the 14-year veteran reached a point in her career where she's
content to make the occasional run at a major title, but is unwilling to commit
to the workload necessary compete for titles on a weekly basis?
Only Capriati herself can answer those questions, but it will be intriguing to
chart her course as she searches for the answers.
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╭ 花 的 嫁 紗 ~~王心凌 ＊
花 開在太陽下 等著情人呀 努力盛開卻 等不到它
雨 突然一直下 打亂著花嫁 騙自己它就要 到了
可以哭 卻還拼命的掙扎 說什麼 只會讓人當笑話
愛 是花兒的芬芳 是 蝴蝶的翅膀 是 傷心的蒲公英迷失它的方向
愛 在孤獨中絕望 在絕望中堅強 堅強後繼續不停 想著它
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