“I don’t wanna talk about them… let’s talk about me” – When Jennifer Capriati firmly dismissed question about Venus and Serena Williams’ dominance

Jennifer Capriati (L); Venus and Serena Williams (R) (Image Source: Getty)

Jennifer Capriati once voiced frustration when facing a question about Venus and Serena Williams. The American also revealed how she felt about the talk of the Williams sisters’ dominance.

Capriati was among the Williams sisters’ fiercest rivals during their early years on tour. She locked horns with Serena on 17 occasions, with the 23-time Grand Slam champion winning 10 of those encounters. Meanwhile, Venus dominated her rivalry against her fellow American, triumphing in all four of their matches. The intensity of these rivalries may have boiled over beyond the court, going by Capriati’s reaction to being asked about them.

In a 2003 interview with The Guardian, Jennifer Capriati was quick to dismiss a question about Venus and Serena Williams, firmly declaring that she didn’t want to talk about her rivals. Nevertheless, the former World No. 1 expressed her belief that the Williams sisters hadn’t dominated as much as everyone thought before steering the conversation back to herself.

“I don’t think they’ve really dominated as much as everyone thinks. But I don’t wanna talk about them. Look, I thought, I mean, if this interview is about me, let’s talk about me,” Capriati said.

Capriati also said that people had forgotten just how tough the era she started in was and highlighted the challenge of facing Steffi Graf and Monica Seles at their respective peaks.

“People don’t realise not a lot compares to the game I was faced with when I started – Monica [Seles] in her prime, Steffi in her prime. I mean Steffi’s forehand, nobody can tell me that was easier to face than anything that’s around now. Everyone kinda has a short memory there. Maybe where there’s a difference now is that there are so many more players who have real quality,” she said.

A year after Jennifer Capriati’s remarks, she locked horns with Serena Williams in the quarterfinals of the 2004 US Open. The blockbuster clash was marred by the drama caused by several controversial line calls by the chair umpire Mariana Alves, especially one that benefitted Capriati, who went on to win the match.

“I couldn’t sleep… It was difficult” – Jennifer Capriati on dealing with the fallout from controversial win over Serena Williams

Victoria Azarenka, Jennifer Capriati and Serena Williams – Source: Getty

While talking to the press after her semifinal loss at the 2004 US Open, Jennifer Capriati admitted that she had been distracted by the discourse surrounding her controversial encounter with Serena Williams and had even lost sleep because of the drama.

“I’d have to say it did. I mean, because, you know, I really — I couldn’t sleep, you know, even a couple times after. It was just like so much just emphasis on that,” Capriati said. “Every time I would kind of turn on the TV, I was just starting to question even myself, you know, about it. It was difficult and a lot of distraction maybe from that.”

Capriati also revealed that she had questioned whether she was to blame for the contentious incident and lamented that it created the impression that all the officiating decisions had favored her.

“Well, like, you know, like, you know, ‘Did I do something wrong? Was it my fault?’ Whatever. Just things like even just in the last game, you know, where they’re going back — if you check on every single ball, like probably it would just go both ways. You can’t do that. But it made it seem like, you know, like I just got everything, you know,” she added.

Meanwhile, Serena Williams said she felt “cheated and robbed” by Mariana Alves’ umpiring decisions during her encounter with Jennifer Capriati. Williams also asserted that she had “too many demons” to ever want Alves to officiate any of her matches again.