TENNIS: WIMBLEDON CHAMPIONSHIPS : Homesick Capriati Prepares for Graf

By THOMAS BONK

June 30, 1990 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

LONDON — She’s 14, she misses her friends, she misses her own telephone and she misses her dog, but Jennifer Capriati did not miss her chance to play Steffi Graf at Wimbledon.

But she almost did.

Capriati blew two match points in the second set, lost a tiebreaker, dropped five consecutive games and trailed Robin White, 0-3, in the third set Friday.

Just then, it seemed as if Capriati would be late for a very important date, her first meeting with Graf.

Just then, Capriati was thinking something else.

“I think I should never have been down 0-3,” she said. “I should have been in the locker room by then.”

Soon, she was. Capriati did not lose another game. She reeled off six in a row, closed out a 7-5, 6-7 (7-1), 6-3 victory, shook White’s hand at the net, then began sizing up Graf.

“Well, I’m very excited and I just . . . I really can’t wait,” Capriati said.

She must wait until Monday. Then there will be the most celebrated coming-out party of the year: Graf, 21, the two-time defending Wimbledon champion, against Capriati, the Florida teen whose dialing finger is getting pretty itchy after being away from her friends for nearly two months.

The worst part about playing tennis in Europe?

“I miss calling my friends on the phone all the time,” Capriati said.

Graf defeated Claudia Kohde-Kilsch in their third-round match, 6-0, 6-4, nothing more than a warmup for her greatly anticipated quarterfinal showdown against Capriati.

“Now that it’s (happening), I will enjoy it for sure,” Graf said.

Monica Seles, who is in line to meet either Graf or Capriati in the semifinals, swept past Anne Minter, 6-3, 6-3. She was slightly bothered by an ear infection that she says affects her balance occasionally.

The French Open champion kept her equilibrium and won her 35th consecutive match in typical hard-hitting fashion. There is something different about Seles here. Instead of her trademark pink bloomers, she is wearing white under her skirt, mindful of the All England Club’s rule against colorful clothes.

Seles said she was afraid what would happen if she arrived at the court in pink and was told it was unacceptable.

“I mean, where I am gonna go and change?” Seles said.

Boris Becker’s booming serve was strangely silent in his third-round match against Dan Goldie, but it didn’t seem to matter. Goldie, from Redwood City, Calif., had five aces, Becker four, but Becker won, 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5, to set up a quarterfinal meeting against Pat Cash of Australia.

Cash, the 1987 Wimbledon champion, breezed past Juan Aguilera of Spain, 6-1, 6-1, 6-4.

“It wasn’t easy so far and it’s not going to get much easier,” Becker said. “Pat is very good on grass, (but) if I keep on playing the way I do, I have a pretty good chance.”

Another quarterfinal will match Brad Gilbert of Piedmont, Calif., against David Wheaton of Minneapolis. Gilbert defeated Paul Haarhuis, 6-1, 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, and Wheaton came from two sets down to defeat French Open semifinalist Jonas Svensson, 2-6, 6-7 (11-9), 6-1, 6-0, 6-4.

Against White, a seven-year veteran of the tour at 26, Capriati turned the match in a grueling 29-point third game of the final set that lasted 22 minutes. Capriati eventually lost, but not before forcing 13 deuces.

Capriati’s explanation of White’s success was disarmingly simple: “She whacked some forehands and she nailed some forehands.”

But White played herself out in the third game.

“It took whatever I had left, without a doubt,” said White, who doesn’t give Capriati much of a chance against Graf.

“I don’t want to say she’s 50-50, but she’s got a 20% shot,” White said.

Of course, Team Capriati is not so sure that such low odds are accurate. Jennifer’s parents, Stefano and Denice, and 10-year-old brother, Steven, are helping her enjoy her first appearance at Wimbledon.

The clan plans to see a West End performance of “Les Miserables” today and worry about Graf later.

Stefano Capriati gave a guarded assessment of Jennifer’s chances against Graf: “We know what will happen, but we do not say.”

Although White does not think Capriati will win, she was nonetheless impressed with Capriati’s strength and level of skill.

“I don’t want to hear about 14-year-olds anymore,” White said.

“I wouldn’t like to see how strong she is going to get in two more years. I can’t believe a 14-year-old can hit the ball that hard. Women just aren’t strong like that. She can hit the ball with power when she’s deep on the court, which not a lot of girls can do.”

It has been nearly eight weeks since Capriati last saw her dog, Bianca, or spent time with her friends at Saddlebrook. Even though she has been away a long time, Capriati hopes her flight back is delayed a little longer.

“I’m getting a little homesick,” she said. “But I’ll wait and finish this before I go home.”