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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal
Byline: Charles BRICKER
KEY BISCAYNE _ It was the summer of 1990 and 14-year-old Jennifer Capriati, deliriously happy and full of promise, was dragged off to New Hampshire after several demanding weeks on the tennis tour to play an exhibition event.
She won it, collected a generous paycheck, and the Associated Press, perhaps oblivious to the insignificance of this pseudo-tournament, reported that the precocious teenager from Florida captured her first professional title.
"I wrote a column telling readers not to be fooled, that it was just an exhibition," says Bud Collins, the Boston Globe tennis writer. "And then I went on to say that it was great that Jennifer had come to New Hampshire, but that she should have left her racket home. She needed a rest.
"A few weeks later, I ran into her father, who chastised me. He didn't like the column. I remember him telling me, `Where I come from, we have a saying. When the apple is ripe, you eat it. Jennifer is ripe,' he said. `You don't know if she's going to burn out. I don't know. Only God knows. But I'll tell you...
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