THE
SCOOP: SUNDAY, APRIL 28
BJK:
Jennifer feeling pressure; relationship at risk
By
Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net
Susan
Mullane/
Camerawork USA
|
FROM
THE FED CUP –
Just an hour after her team was stunned 3-0 by Austria in
the first round Fed Cup on Sunday, Billie Jean King said that
she believes that Jennifer Capriati – who she kicked
off the team on Friday – is feeling enormous pressure
in anticipation of her defense of her Roland Garros title,
which partly explains her erratic behavior this week.
"I
think she's feeling a lot of pressure with the French coming
up and having to defend her title," King told tennisreporters.net.
"She's feeling a tremendous amount of pressure. It starts
to add up. It's like boiling water – it keeps boiling
with the temperature getting higher and higher. I think she
tired, too. It's hard work."
King
dismissed Capriati on Friday afternoon, after Jennifer had
violated team practice rules by attempting to hold a private
session with her father and coach, Stefano. As a result, the
U.S. had to forfeit her match. Both King and the team –
Monica Seles, Meghann Shaughnessy and Lisa Raymond –
all came down hard on Capriati for acting selfishly. But King
said she is willing to repair her relationship with Jennifer.
"I
could, but that's me. I still care about about Jennifer and
her family," King
said. "I know how I feel. They have to take responsibility
for their own feelings and I don't know what those are. It's
sad because I know them since she's been 12 and I've always
hung in there with the through thick and thin. But I'm sure
they don't feel like that now."
King
said that while she has the advantage of age and wisdom over
the 25-year-old Jennifer, she's not in the same situation
with Stefano, who she seriously clashed with this week.
"I'm
not older and wiser than Mr. Capriati," King laughed.
Both King and Shaughnessy said that it was worth taking the
loss while standing behind their team principles with Capriati.
Shaughnessy
said, "The bottom line is when we came here, there were
a set of rules signed for each player. It was Jennifer's decision
not to follow one of them. That's her decision and it's fine.
But is she's going to make that decision. she needs to know
there are consequences."
King
agreed that principle was more important than victory. "Yes.
That's why I did it," she said.
King
said that on Saturday night, she told her team to forget about
the incident. "I told them we have to let the last six
days go," King said. "What good does it
do to hold on to it? It doesn't do us anything. I think everyone
has let it go although I think they've changed their perceptions
of Jennifer."
BJK
isn't sure whether she will ask Jennifer to be on the team
again, not is she sure that Jennifer wants to be asked again
.
"I don't know. I just have to calm down and reflect,"
she said. "I don't think that as long as I'm captain
she would come back. But that's speculation. I'm always open
to starting over, but I'm also older and have more history
behind me and realize that relationships are the most important
thing in the world, not tennis matches. It's very easy to
say at 59. When you are in the thick of it, you think it's
so important, you think the whole world knows who you are.
It's a very tiny universe: sports."
