WIMBLEDON : Upset Victory Over Navratilova Is Like Child’s Play for Capriati

She is 15, talks like a Valley Girl--even though she is from Florida--and giggles a lot. But Wednesday at Wimbledon, on tradition-rich Centre Court and before a world of tennis fans watching on television, she was the little girl who could.

Jennifer Capriati, who moved through the early rounds here fairly unnoticed, simply ran over defending champion Martina Navratilova in a women’s quarterfinal that had been continued after a rainout Tuesday. Capriati resumed the match up a set at 6-4, but down a service break, with Navratilova serving at 3-2. And in a few short minutes, Capriati had taken the steam out of her 34-year-old opponent and completed a 6-4, 7-5 stunner.

For those who didn’t see the match, the result probably came as a shock. Navratilova has won here a record nine times.

And this was her court. She probably has spent more hours on this Centre Court since she began coming here in 1973 and played more matches before those in the royal box than anybody. And she was beaten by a girl who wasn’t born until two years after Navratilova had played her first tournament here.

For those who did see the match, the result wasn’t quite as shocking, and the operative word was beaten.

Although Navratilova tightened badly--she double-faulted on match point--she did not lose the match as much as Capriati won it.

“It is to Jennifer’s credit that she had the courage to win the match,” said her coach, Tom Gullikson. “She had the guts to go for it. She wasn’t waiting for Martina to lose. She wasn’t out there playing it safe.”

On her second match point, with Navratilova serving at 5-6 and 30-40, Capriati stepped around a deep serve and cracked a forehand toward her opponent’s backhand side. It smashed hard into the tape of the net for deuce, but only postponed the inevitable.

“Jennifer is an aggressive personality,” Gullikson said. “It has little to do with age. Some people age 20 are still timid. Some people 80 are. Not Jennifer. Her father, Stefano, has done very well with her on that.”

“She’s a prime-time player, there’s no question about that.”

No, the only real surprise was that she came so far so fast, and with talent even the harshest of critics can’t question.

She was seeded No. 9 here--a year ago, she was the youngest player ever seeded when she played here for the first time--and her advancement into today’s semifinals is not even her first Grand Slam tournament semifinal. She got that far in last year’s French Open.

But this is Wimbledon, and grass isn’t even supposed to be Capriati’s best surface. Plus, that was a tennis legend she was beating, or, as Capriati calls Navratilova, “the Ledge.”

So when she hit yet another backhand service return past the faltering Navratilova on the last deuce point of the match, and then taunted “the Ledge” before Navratilova’s final serve into the net by dancing and hopping way in toward the service line--a la Michael Chang against Ivan Lendl in that famous French Open match in 1989--Capriati was playing her way into the history books in a big way. Some examples:

--She became the youngest Wimbledon semifinalist, at 15 years 96 days.

--She won for the first time against a player ranked in the top four in the world, and in doing so dropped Navratilova from No. 4 to No. 5.

--She knocked Navratilova out of this tournament before the semifinals for the first time since 1977. The last time Navratilova missed the Wimbledon final was 1981. She has been in every final here since 1978, except 1980 and ‘81, and won those nine times, including last year.

--She was knocking off a player who, the day before, had set a women’s record for most singles matches played at Wimbledon, 112.

When it rained Tuesday, there was speculation that the edge Capriati had would evaporate when she had time to think about what she was on the verge of doing. But Gullikson used some sound psychology to dispel that.

“At dinner Tuesday night, Jennifer was saying how much she hoped she could zone (a tennis term that means to get almost hypnotically focused) Wednesday like she had the first day,” Gullikson said. “But I told her that she hadn’t been zoning out there, that that was just her, that was the way she could and did play.”

Navratilova had also hoped for an edge from the rain.

“I thought if anything, the rain delay would have helped me,” she said. “And it looked like it would at the beginning. But then, I didn’t win that game, and she was right back in the set again.”

“That game” was the second game they played Wednesday, after Navratilova had come out and held serve routinely for 4-2. The score went to love-40 in Capriati’s ensuing service game, and Navratilova was three break points away from going up two breaks and certainly winning the set.

But Capriati got it back to deuce with a hot-paced backhand cross-court shot, and then got it to her game point with an ace and held for 3-4 when Navratilova hit a forehand wide.

“I was in the driver’s seat, love-40, but she had five huge serves,” Navratilova said. “I was on my heels the whole time.”

Shortly after that, Navratilova’s nerves failed her. If she had been a golfer, her malady would have been described as “the yips.” Others, among them probably Navratilova, would have described the condition in a single word often used in reference to an acute tightening of the throat.

Gullikson put it nicely and delicately.

“I told Jennifer to come out strong and start fast,” he said. “I was hoping for something like the score getting back to 4-4 (as it did) because we all know Martina has a tendency to have some anxious moments when things get tight.”

Navratilova said: “When you get older, you get more nervous. It should get easier, but all the other players say the same thing; it gets more difficult.”

As for Capriati, who played throughout as if this was nothing more than a hitting drill in her back yard in Florida, there were no yips, no anxious moments. The only thing around her throat was the collar on her shirt.

“No one expected me to win,” she said. “I just went out there and just played. I had no nerves.”

Tennis historians will undoubtedly note the date, July 3, 1991, when Jennifer Capriati cut her first slice of Wimbledon history. They also will watch closely to see if it was Navratilova’s last.

“I’m not hanging it up,” Navratilova said. “I still feel that I have some really good tennis in me. I just don’t know how much of the heart is left.”

* OTHER MATCHES: Women’s semifinals, men’s quarterfinals provide the fireworks today. C8