With Wimbledon a week away, there were no changes in the men's or women's Top 10s in the latest ATP and WTA rankings.

But there was movement just outside the men's Top 10, where Japan's Kei Nishikori reached a new career high, moving up two spots to No. 11 despite being idle last week.
 

Nishikori moved up as Tommy Haas lost two places by being idle this week after winning Halle a year ago at this time.

Roger Federer, who lost Halle a year ago to Haas, won the title on Sunday, allowing him to build his lead over No. 4 David Ferrer to 520 points, while staying within 780 points of No. 2 Andy Murray.

Federer has a tough row to hoe ahead of him with Wimbledon coming up. As defending champion, he has a full 2,000 points to defend, but he has just one title so far in 2013.

Should Federer not repeat, or go down earlier than even the semifinals or final, there is the distinct possibility that he could fall as low as No. 5 in the world, if Rafael Nadal and Ferrer are able to go deep into the tournament. 

Nadal was upset by Lukas Rosol in the second round at Wimbledon in 2012 - the last match Nadal would play that year, giving him virtually no points to defend at the All England Club.

Ferrer reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon in 2012, so if he just matches that and Federer doesn't reach the final, he too can move up.
 

Federer has not been ranked as low as No. 5 since June 23, 2003. That date was, not coincidentally, the start of Wimbledon, which Federer won two weeks later for the first of his 17 Grand Slam titles.

The biggest move in the Top 100 came courtesy of another former No. 1 - Australia's Lleyton Hewitt. Hewitt reached the semifinals at Queen's Club by upsetting Grigor Dimitrov, Sam Querrey and Juan Martin Del Potro in order before falling to Marin Cilic in a three-set semifinal. 

Hewitt climbed from 82nd to 70th with the push. His win over Del Potro was his first against a Top 10 opponent this year, and first since he defeated Juan Monaco in October 2012.

All was quiet in the women's Top 20 this week. Inside the Top 50, Simona Halep climed from 58th to 45th by winning the title at Nurnberg. It was the first WTA victory of her career.

Former Top 10 player Andrea Petkovic, who has lost a majority of the last two seasons to injury, reappeared in the Top 100 on Monday, rising from No. 103 to No. 75. Petkovic lost to Halep in the Nurnberg final, but has climbed 102 places since making her 2013 debut at Indian Wells in early March.

 

If hearing Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams' names praised again and again over the past week is starting to sound like a broken record, well it's probably because the pair keep breaking records.
 

Both players further cemented their legacies in the ATP and WTA record books with their victories at the French Open last Sunday. Here's a look at some of the marks set for the two champions and a number of other players at Roland Garros over the past two weeks.

 

ATP 

● Nadal moved past Bjorn Borg into sole possession of third place in Grand Slams won with 12. Pete Sampras is second with 14.

● Nadal moved into fourth in career Grand Slam finals with his 17th, one ahead of Borg and Jimmy Connors, one behind Sampras for third.

● Nadal appeared in his 20th career semifinal, sixth all time, moving past John McEnroe and Stefan Edberg.

● Nadal and Novak Djokovic each appeared in his 24th career Slam quarterfinal, tying them for eighth all-time.

● Roger Federer made his 40th Slam quarterfinal appearance, and trails Jimmy Connors by just one for the all-time led.

● Nadal now has 164 career Grand Slam wins, good for eighth place. He moved one pat Boris Becker and trails McEnroe by three.

● Djokovic entered the Top 10 in Grand Slam victories with 164. Federer is now at 256, easily the all-time leader.

● Djokovic extended his streak of consecutive Grand Slam semifinal appearances to 12, second all-time. Federer is first at 23.

● Federer extended his record of consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinals to 36. Djokovic is now second with 16.

● This was Federer's 54th straight appearance in a Slam. He is two behind Wayne Ferreira and Stefan Edberg for the most ever. David Ferrer has appeared in 42 straight, good for seventh all-time, Fernando Verdasco 40 straight, ninth most, and Tomas Berdych 10th with 39 straight.

● Nadal tied the record he already shares with himself and Bjorn Borg for his fourth straight French open title.

● With 59 French Open career victories, Nadal surpassed Guillermo Vilas for the most all-time. Federer is tied for second with 58.

● Nadal's 28 straight wins at the French Open is the second-most ever, trailing only the 31 he won in a row from 2005-2009.

● With a 12-5 record in Grand Slam finals, Nadal is third in finals winning percentage at 70.59%. Federer is second at 70.83%.

● Nadal's winning percentage at Roland Garros is now 98.33%, first all-time. Federer is seventh at 80.56% and Djokovic is eighth at 80.00%.

● This is Nadal's ninth straight season winning at least one Slam, tying him with Borg for the longest streak in Open Era history.

● This is Nadal's 57th ATP title in his career, tying him for ninth all-time with Ilie Nastase. He is second among active players behind Federer (76).

● It was Nadal's 80th ATP final, good for 10th place all-time.

● No man has ever won a tournament more than eight times. Nadal now has that record thrice over with eight wins at Roland Garros, Monte Carlo and Barcelona; the only other man to do so was Vilas, who won Buenos Aires eight times.

● This is Nadal's 42nd career title on clay, good for second place all-time, four behind Vilas for first.

● This is Nadal's 55th career title outside. He trails Vilas, Federer and Connors by one for the most ever.

 

WTA

● With 16 singles Slams, Serena Williams is within two of Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert for third all-time.

● Williams has reached 23 singles Slam semifinals, passing Evonne Goolagong for fifth place.

● Francesca Schiavone has appeared in 50 straight Grand Slam events, fifth all-time.

● Williams has 46 French open wins, good for seventh all-time. Maria Sharapova has 43, good for eighth.

● Williams surpassed Sharapova in French Open winning percentage at 82.14% (46-10) for seventh place. Sharapova is at 81.13% (43-10) and Svetlana Kuznetsova is ninth at 80.39% (41-10).

● Williams is third in all-time Grand Slam winning percentage at 87.08% (236-35) and No. 1 in finals winning percertage at 80.00% (16-4).

● Williams won her 52nd tour title, putting her one behind Monica Seles for 5th in the Open Era.

● It was Williams' 68th final, tying her for eighth in Open Era history with Martina Hingis.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

JUNE 16

Germany's Benjamin Becker, ranked No. 85 in the world, turns 32. Becker has been ranked as high s No. 38 and has one ATP title. He is not related to former Wimbledon champion Boris Becker.

JUNE 17

Arthur "Bud" Collins, the foremost tennis journalist in the word, turns 84. Collins is the author of the Bud Collins Tennis Encyclopedia and was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1994.

Tennis agent pioneer and former Davis Cup captain Donald Dell turns 75. As a player, Dell was a three-time all-American at Yale and reached No. 5 in the world in 1961. He played for the US Davis Cup team in 1961 and 1963, and was the captain of winning teams in 1968 and 1969. He helped establish the ATP in 1972 and represented the likes of Jimmy Connors and Arthur Ashe in the 1970s.

Thirteen-time Grand Slam doubles champion Leander Paes turns 40. Paes, currently ranked No. 13 in the world in doubles, has 13 Slams - seven in men's doubles, six in mixed. Paes completed the men's doubles career Slam in 2012 when he won the Australian Open. He has three titles at the French Open (1999, 2001, 2009), one at Wimbledon (2009) and two at the US Open (2006, 2009). He has won three of the four mixed doubles Slams, lacking only the French Open. He has won Australia twice (2003, 2010), Wimbledon three times (1999, 2003, 2010) and the US Open once (2008).

Cyprus' Marcos Baghdatis, currently ranked No. 38 in the world, turns 28. Baghdatis has been ranked as high as No. 8 in the world and has four career titles. He reached the Australian Open final in 2006, losing to Roger Federer.

JUNE 20

Ecuador's Pancho Segura, a No. 1 player in the 1940s and 1950s, turns 92. He was the only player to win the US Pro title on three different surfaces, doing so between 1950-1952. He was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1984.

Doris Hart, the first woman to complete the career Grand Slam in singles as well as the career "boxed" set, turns 88. In total, she won 35 Grand Slams - six in singles and 29 in doubles. In mixed doubles, she won at least three Slams a year from 1951-1953. The only other two women to complete the boxed set are Margaret Court and Martina Navratilova.

Raul Ramirez, three-time Grand Slam winner and a former Top 5 player in men's singles and doubles, turns 60. Ramirez was ranked No. 4 in the world in singles in 1976 and spent 61 weeks ranked No. 1 in doubles starting the same year. He won 60 doubles titles including three mixed doubles Grand Slams - Wimbledon in 1976 and the French Open in 1975 and 1977.






 

In the wonderful, nonsensical world of the professional tennis rankings, losing the French Open final moves you past the guy who won it. 

That was the case Sunday as the post-French Open ATP rankings were released with David Ferrer, thoroughly thrashed by Rafael Nadal earlier that day in the Roland Garros final, jumped over Nadal in the rankings.

This of course, happened because of the "defense of points". Nadal gained none by "simply" repeating as champion, defending his 2,000 points, while Ferrer, a semifinalist in 2012, gained 480 by reaching the final this year, enough to surpass the eight-time French Open champion in the rankings and reclaiming No. 4.

Ferrer is now within striking distance of No. 3 Roger Federer - trailing him by just 420 points. Since Federer won Wimbledon last summer, the odds are decent that Ferrer could move to No. 3 for the first time in his career.

Semifinalist Jo-Wilfried Tsonga moved up to No. 7, bypassing Juan Martin Del Potro, and quarterfinalist Tommy Haas rose three spots to No. 10. Haas, 35, is just 225 points behind No. 10 Stanislas Wawrinka. Haas was last ranked in the Top 10 on October 29, 2007.

The biggest move inside the Top 50 came from Serbia's Viktor Troicki, who rose 13 spots to No. 44 after reaching the fourth round with an upset of Marin Cilic.

France's Gael Monfils, fighting his way back from injury and generating plenty of local support after his first-round upset of No. 6 Tomas Berdych, rose 14 spots to No. 67. Monfils has climbed 52 spots since May 13.

 

WTA

In the women's rankings, Victoria Azarenka reclaimed the No. 2 spot from Maria Sharapova after the 2012 champion fell in the final to Serena Williams on Saturday.

Azarenka, who lost to Sharapova in Thursday's semifinals, now leads the Russian by 210 points.

Williams, who now has won three of the last four majors, has opened up a lead just short of 4,000 points on Azarenka.

Also in the Top 10, Maria Kirilenko rose to No. 10 for the first time in her career, following new No. 7 Angelique Kerber, No. 8 Petra Kvitova (down 1 spot) and No.9 Caroline Wozniacki (up one spot).

Italy's Roberta Vinci, 30, rose four spots to No. 11, and Ana Ivanovic jumped two places to No. 12.

Australia's Sam Stosur dropped out of the Top 10 for the first time since August of 2011, sliding five spots to No. 14. 

First-round French Open casualty Venus Williams fell three spots to No. 35. Williams was last ranked in the Top 10 in January of 2011.

The biggest plunge in the top went to Estonia's Kaia Kanepi, who tumbled 20 spots to No. 46.

Kanepi lost in the second round a year after reaching the quarterfinals. 

 

 

 

 

Two legacies were altered in the final of the 1984 French Open. One began there, the other was left wanting of its final achievement.
 

John McEnroe entered the tournament as the de facto best player in the world, and had started the season with 36 straight victories.

Czechoslovakia's Ivan Lendl was a rock solid No. 2, but had yet to win a Grand Slam title, having lost in four major finals between 1981 and 1983. He was 26-5 to start the 1984 season, with three of those losses coming at McEnroe's hands.

McEnroe lost a single set in his first four rounds, the same number as third-seeded Jimmy Connors. Neither Lendl nor fourth-seeded Mats Wilander dropped a set in their first four matches.

Eight of the top nine seeds made the quarterfinals, with McEnroe and Connors each sweeping their opponent while Lendl needed four sets to edge out Andres Gomez, and Wilander five sets to defeat defending champion Yannick Noah.

In the semifinals, McEnroe handed Connors his first set loss, then his second and third in a convincing sweep. Lendl wiped out Wilander in similar fashion to set up a clash between the world No. 1 and 2 for the title.

McEnroe had never won the French Open title, piling up five Slams between the US Open and Wimbledon already. The Australian Open was not really on Big Mac's radar at that point in history. He had only first played it in 1983, reaching the semifinals, and would only make the trip down under five times in his 15-year career.

The American seemed on the cusp of adding the French Open title to his legacy as he dropped Lendl into a 6-3, 6-2 hole, but after so many failures, Lendl turned things around.

The Czech won the third set 6-4, then won two nail-biting sets 7-5 and 7-5 to rally for the title - ending McEnroe's win streak at 42, a start of the season mark that stands to this day.

McEnroe called the loss the most disappointing of his career years later in his autobiography. He would lose just two more times in the 1984 campaign, finishing 82-3 and winning both Wimbledon and the US Open.

But he never came close to winning Roland Garros again, and never won another Slam after 1984. 

For Lendl, the massive comeback opened the door to his untapped potential. He would win nine more Slams over the next six seasons, including seven between 1985-1987.

 

 

The 1989 women's field at the French Open was like stepping through time to see the past, present and future of the WTA. 

Steffi Graf was a few days short of her 20th birthday when the tournament started, and was in perhaps the most dominating stretch of tennis in the Open Era - having won five straight Slams and the Olympic gold medal. She was 41-1 to start the season with seven titles.

The field also included 15-year-old unranked Monica Seles in her Grand Slam debut as well as 17-year-old Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, the eighth seed.

Graf was a machine through the first four rounds, never losing more than two games in a set. Seles was the surprise, winning her section thanks in large part to an upset of fourth-seed Zina Garrison-Jackson in the third round.

She wasn't the only surprise to make the quarterfinals, however. American Mary Joe Fernandez, the 15th seed, upended No. 2 seed Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round.

None of the four semifinalists lost a set in the quarters, but Seles opened eyes all over the world when she took Graf to three sets in one semifinal, while Vicario steamrolled Fernandez 6-2, 6-2 in the other.

Vicario won a gutty 7-6(6) tie-breaker off Graf in the final, but the German seemed to be locking up her sixth straight Slam when took the second set 6-3 and led the third 5-3. 

But Vicario broke Graf's serve and raced past her, winning the final four games to claim her first Grand Slam and prove that Graf, despite being perhaps the best of all-time, wasn't invincible. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

June 14 - Steffi Graf, former No .1, 22-time Grand Slam winner and the only player to ever win the Golden Slam in a single season, turns 44. Graf's 22 Grand Slam singles titles are the most in the Open Era and second all-time. In 1988, she won all four major titles as well as the Olympic gold medal.

Graf also won the gold medal in women's singles in 1984, the silver in the 1992 Olympics and the bronze for women's doubles in 1988. Her first Grand Slam came at age 17 when she defeated Martina Navratilova to win the French Open in 1987.

Between 1988-1990, she won eight of the 12 total Slams, and won each of them at least four times - with seven wins at Wimbledon, six at Roland Garros, five at the US Open and four at the Australian Open. She won 107 titles overall, third-most in history, and had a career winning percentage of .887 with 902 wins against only 115 losses. When she retired in 1999, Graf was still ranked No. 3 in the world. Two years later, she married Andre Agassi and has had two children with him. She was inducted into the International Tennis Hal of Fame in 2004.

 

June 15 - Two-time Grand Slam finalist Cedric Pioline of France turns 44. Pioline climbed as high as No. 5 in the world and won five singles titles, including Monte Carlo in 2000. He reached the finals of the US Opn in 1993 and Wimbledon in 1997 but lost to American Pete Sampras both times. He is currently the tournament director of the ATP Masters in Paris.

 

 

A look behind the numbers of Saturday's women's French Open final

 

 

The world of women's tennis shifted in the spring of 1987 at Roland Garros. 

Between 1982 and 1986, Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova won 18 of 19 Grand Slam titles. 

Navratilova was 30 years old and the No. 1 seed entering Roland Garros, defending champion Evert, 32 years old, was No. 3
.

Sandwiched between the two was Steffi Graf, a month short of her 18th birthday, who started the season 32-0 and was nearly untouchable in the early going, losing just five games in the first three rounds. 

Of the top three seeds, only Navratilova lost a set in the first four rounds. All three women breezed through the quarterfinals as well, setting up the rare Navratilova-Evert semifinal. Their previous 10 Grand Slam meetings had been in finals, dating back to the 1981 US Open. 
 

Navratilova thrashed the fading Evert, 6-2, 6-2, while Graf had to hold off a fiesty Gabriela Sabatini in three sets, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to reach the final.

Once there, she took the first set from Navratilova, 6-4, lost the second by the same score, then things got interesting.
 

Graf outlasted the legendary Navratilova 8-6 in the third set to win her first career Grand Slam. She would return and defend her championship in 1988 as she won the legendary Golden Slam - all four majors plus a gold medal at the Olympics. It was the first of her 22 Grand Slam titles, second most in history. 

Beaten, but hardly down, Navratilova bounced back to take the titles at Wimbledon and the US Open later in 1987, and added one more Slam at Wimbledon in 1990 at age 33.

 

Martina Navratilova did not lose a set through the first six rounds of the 1985 French Open.

Neither did Chris Evert.

So of course, in the final, something had to give.

 

In many ways, it is a queer, cruel fate that Evert and Navratilova's careers overlapped so significantly. Had the other not existed, either would have been hailed as the greatest player of all time. 

Evert went 82-8 in 1985, but four of those losses were to Navratilova. Navratilova was 82-4 that same year, and three of her losses were to Evert.

Each woman wound up with 18 Grand Slam singles titles. Evert's domains were Roland Garros and Flushing Meadows. She won seven titles at the French Open and six more at the US Open. She won at least one Slam every year from 1979-1986. 

Navratilova owned Wimbledon - winning it nine times - but only took the French title twice, although she was the defending champion heading into the spring of 1985.

Navratilova was a wrecking ball in the early rounds - with winning scores of 6-1, 6-0; 6-3, 6-0; and 6-0 in her first three matches.

Evert gave up a few more games, but was unscathed after eliminating young Steffi Graf in the fourth round.

It wasn't until the semifinals that an opponent took four games in a set off Navratilova, but she still swept Claudia Kohde-Kilsch 6-4 ,6-4.

Evert seemed to get stronger as the tournament got longer, wiping out Terry Phelps 6-4, 6-0 in the quarterfinals and Gabriela Sabatini 6-4, 6-1 in the semis.

Navratilova's first set loss of the tournament came in the final as Evert took a 6-3 advantage, but the ferocious Martina fought back for a 7-6 (4) equalizer.

With the two titans both on the edge of defeat, Evert eked out a a 7-5 third set to claim the title. She would defend her crown in 1986, besting Navratilova 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. 

The four semifinalists have combined for 21 Grand Slam victories to date - Serena Williams has 15, Maria Sharapova 4 and Victoria Azarenka 2. This is the most among the four semifinalists since 1999 when Martina Hingis (6), Arantxa-Sanchez Vicario (4), Steffi Graf (21) and Monica Seles (9) had a combined 40 entering the semifinals.

 

Four of the top five seeds have advanced to the semifinals. The last time that happened was in 1992 when #1 Monica Seles, #2 Steffi Graf, #3 Gabriela Sabatini and #4 Aranxta Sanchez-Vicario made up the final four.

 

Maria Sharapova is two wins away from becoming the first woman since Justine Henin (2005-2007) to win back-to-back French Open crowns.

 

No women's final has gone three sets since 2001, when Jennifer Capriati defeated Kim Clijsters 1-6, 6-4, 12-10.

 

If Sara Errani makes the final, it will be the fourth straight year an Italian woman has done so. Errani also made it in 2012, and Francesca Schiavone won the title in 2010 and was the runner-up in 2011.

 

If Serena Williams reaches the final, she'll be the first American woman to do so since she won the tournament in 2002.

 

Serena Williams is 5-0 lifetime against Sara Errani.

 

Serena Williams is 19-3 (.864) in Grand Slam semifinals in her career.

 

Victoria Azarenka holds a 7-5 record against Maria Sharapova. The two met six times in 2012, with Azarenka winning four of those matches.

 

Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have all been ranked No. 1 in the world in the last calendar year. Sharapova was last ranked first on July 8, 2012; Azarenka on February 17, 2013 and Williams is the current No. 1.

The 1989 men's French Open top four seeds could give today's Big Four a run for its money. By May of 1989, No. 1 seed Ivan Lendl had seven Grand Slams and had started the year by winning the Australian Open; second-seed Boris Becker had a pair of Slams and would win both Wimbledon and the US Open later that year; No. 3 Stefan Edberg had three Slams under his belt and fourth-seeded Mats Wilander had seven Slams and was the tournament's defending champion.

 

Then there was American Michael Chang, who had turned 17 three months prior to the start of Roland Garros. The teenager had missed the first month of the season and was a ho-hum 12-6 since, ranked 19th in the world and the French Open's No. 15 seed.

 

Chang lost his first set in his opening match, but rebounded from there, winning his next nine sets, including a 6-1, 6-1, 6-1 bull rush of fellow 17-year-old American Pete Sampras in the second round. A quality run looked over when Chang encountered Lendl in the fourth round and fell behind 4-6, 4-6, but in one of the most legendary performances of all-time, Chang rallied to win the next three sets 6-3, 6-3, 6-3 with a variety of unorthodox shots and psychological warfare - firing moon shots, serving underhand and standing near the T-line at center court when Lendl was serving to throw him off. The match took 4 hours and 37 minutes and Chang admitted later that he had suffered from such terrible cramps, he had considered retiring in the fifth set, even when up 2-1. 

 

With Lendl out, the other top three seeds made the quarterfinals, but defending champion Wilander was shocked by unseeded Russian Andrei Chesnokov in straight sets. Meanwhile Becker and Edberg both swept their quarterfinals and clashed in a tremendous semifinal, which Edberg won despite blowing a two-set lead, 6-3, 6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-2.
 

Chang faced fierce competition from Chesnokov but prevailed in four, setting up the teenager against Edberg, who had never been past the tournament's quarterfinals before.

 

Chang delivered a 6-1 first-set win, but Edberg won the next two sets. Following his win over Lendl, however, nothing seemed impossible for Chang, and he took the next two sets, 6-4, 6-2, becoming the youngest male player ever to win a Grand Slam title. 

 

It would be the only Slam Chang ever won, although he reached the finals of two others and had 34 singles titles to his credit overall. Edberg had three Slams left in his system, winning Wimbledon in 1990 and the US Open in 1991 and 1992. However, he never made it back to the French Open final, and it remained the missing piece in his quest for a career Grand Slam.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga's win over Roger Federer in the quarterfinals was just the fifth time in the last 10 years that Roger Federer has lost a Grand Slam match in straight sets. Previous to Tuesday, the only players to accomplish this feat against Federer were Novak Djokovic (three times) and Rafael Nadal (once).

 

Tsonga joins the short list of men to have defeated Roger Federer twice in Grand Slam matches - Tsonga won a five-set rally at Wimbledon in 2011. Also in the club? Rafael Nadal (8 wins), Novak Djokovic (5), Tomas Berdych (2), David Nalbandian (2), Alex Corretja (2) and Arnaud Clement (2). Of those - Nalbandian, Corretja and Clement's victories all came before Federer was ranked No. 1 or won his first Grand Slam.

 

Tsonga is one win away from being just the fourth French man to reach the Roland Garros final in the Open Era. Patrick Proisy lost the final in 1972; Yannick Noah won it in 1983 and Henri Leconte lost it in 1988.

 

Should Ferrer and Nadal comprise the final, it will be the first time since 2004 that two players from the same country have played in the Roland Garros final (Argentina's Gaston Gaudio and Guillermo Coria), and the first time two Spaniards have done so since 2002 (Albert Costa and Juan Carlos Ferrero).

 

David Ferrer is 0-4 in his career in Grand Slam semifinal matches.

 

The Nadal-Djokovic semifinal breaks a streak of 11 straight matches the pair have played in that have been finals. The last time the pair squared off in a Grand Slam semifinal was Roland Garros in 2008, which Nadal won in straight sets.

 

 

 

By the start of the 2001 season, Jennifer Capriati could easily make the claim of being the oldest 24 year old on the planet.
 

It had been 11 years since she turned pro at 13 years, 11 months, 10 years since she joined the Top 10 for the first time and eight years since she took more than a years' break from the sport after feeling burned out. In that same time span, she was charged with shoplifting and possession of marijuana.
 

She was a non-factor on the WTA tour from 1996-1998, before slowly returning to form and finishing No. 23 in the world in 1999 and No. 14 in 2000.
 

Capriati started off 2001 by winning the Australian Open, her first ever Grand Slam, by beating No. 4 Monica Seles, No. 2 Linsday Davenport and No. 1 Martina Hingis in sucession. She was the No. 4 seed entering the French, with a 28-5 record on the year.

 

Meanwhile, Belgium's Kim Clijsters was enjoying her own version of what Capriati had once been. Just 17 at the start of the 2001 Roland Garros tournament, Clijsters had jumped from 409th in the world in 1998 to 47th in 1999 to 18th in 2000. She had started off 2001 with a trip to the Indian Wells final, and was the 12th seed at the French Open.

 

From the outset, the tournament title looked up for grabs. Defending champion Pierce and third-seed Davenport both were missing due to injuries, while No. 2 seeded Venus Williams and No. 5 seed Amelie Mauresmo were both victims of first-round upsets. Capriati did not lose a set in the first four rounds, while Clijstesr had to hang on for a 6-4, 4-6, 6-3 win in the fourth round against Slovakian upstart Henrieta Nagyova, ranked No. 131 in the world before upsetting No. 7 Elena Dementieva in the second round.

 

Both finalists crushed the quarterfinal competition, and Capriati showed she still had No. 1 Hingis' number in the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-3 conquest. Clijsters had far more trouble with fellow Belgian Justine Henin in the other semi. The player who would become Clijsters' chief rival over time took the first set, but eventually fell 2-6, 7-5, 6-3.

 

In the final, Clijsters was merciless in her 6-1 first-set victory, but Capriati regrouped to take the second set 6-4. The American continued to take the advantage in the third set, and had two match points at 7-6 and 10-9, but could not close out either time. After all of her powerful shots, it was a weak return that touched the top of the tape and limped over that broke Clijsters' back, as Capriati became the first woman since Seles in 1992 to win the first two majors of the year.

 

The season would be the most memorable of Capriati's career. She reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the US Open and took over the No. 1 ranking that October. She repeated as champion at Australia in 2002.

 

Clijsters' career wasn't too shabby, either. Although she never won Roland Garros (she made the final again in 2003), she won four Slams - the US Open in 2005, 2009 and 2010, and the Australian Open in 2011.