Tennis WTA Tour: lowest-ranked Beatrice Capra surges into third round
Lowest ranked Beatrice Capra played her first Sony Ericson WTA Tour-level match this week. She wasn’t in a top 100 player until this month in a Vancouver, British Columbia, ITF event.
One may wonder, what this 18-year-old amateur has done in the first week of this hot U.S. Open? All Beatrice Capra, who lives in Delray Beach, has done is consistent improvement.
Capra, who is a student right now, has taken a year off to see how this tennis thing works out. Her backup plan? Maybe to attend Duke, and to play tennis for the Blue Devils. That might not be necessary for her.
This 5-foot-9, 137 pound athlete just surprised Karoline Sprem in the first round but on Thursday, Capra moved the meter somewhere past incredulity, defeating No. 18 seed Aravane Rezai 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Although there were certain moments, where this young school going girl looked nervous on the Grandstand Court, courageously she played the third set and now finds herself in the third round.
"Winning today, I'd have to say that was probably one of the best moments of my life," Capra said afterward. "This whole experience has been unreal, and I'm so happy. I was able to go to the player party and be a part of this. I'm really excited."
On Wednesday, 18-year-old poster boy Ryan Harrison surprised everyone by winning his first career Grand Slam singles match but he has been a force on the horizon for some time, and the experts are saying he will be a future top-10 player. Where Capra come from besides Ellicott City?
Bea Bielik No. 1,102 ranked American, who was born in Hungry, was the lowest-ranked player to reach the third round at the U.S. Open 2002. Since then, Capra who is at No. 371 is the lowest-ranked player who reached the third round at the U.S. Open 2010. Bielik defeated Tamarine Tanasugarn, the No. 27 before losing to dominant Justine Henin
Hopefully the history will not repeat itself on Saturday, when Capra will face Maria Sharapova on the hard-court at the National Tennis Centre.
Capra has covered a long distance from Plantation, where she started her season in an International Tennis Foundation event. She built her unexceptional game at places like Texas, Osprey and Grapevine. Capra has a pretty good style of serving, and her ground strokes are quite steady but both are not her dangerous weapons. Against Rezai, her backhand was praised by the spectators and was one of her best shots ever. She kept the ball bouncing and forces the Frenchwoman to make mistakes; Rezai made 49 unforced errors.
Capra earned the wild card for the U.S. Open tournament after winning the USTA’s eight-woman playoff in Boca Raton two weeks ago.
"I kind of went in there thinking, 'Well, it will be another match before the Junior U.S. Open, and it will just be no pressure. I've already lost my chance to get a wild card, so this is just a bonus.' I went in there and I just played so freely. Each match that I won, it gave me more confidence” Capra said.
She needs same kind of belief while playing with Sharapova.
"I think it will be an amazing experience," Capra said. "I know she's just such a tough competitor. When I was younger, I used to always look up to her, and so I think it will be a really good match for me to see where I am compared to that kind of level. She just always went for her shots, and you can never tell any of her emotions. That really inspired me. One of my great assets is -- I like to think that I'm mentally tough, and I'll always stay in the match until the end."
Hopefully the young poster girl will live up to the expectations of her nation and all the viewers throughout the world and will come up with major results.
Tags: