American upstart Capra has big test in Sharapova

Giovani Capra drove up to New York from Ellicott City, Md., late Friday afternoon, on his way to see his daughter Beatrice play the biggest match of her life against Maria Sharapova.

"He's seen maybe 10 of my matches in my career," Capra said. "He just gets so nervous. It's tough on him."

This one is bound to be very tough on dad.

Capra will take on former Open champion Sharapova in Arthur Ashe Stadium Saturday afternoon, a match light years ahead of where she was just three weeks ago when she didn't have a spot in the women's draw. The 18-year-old got a call from the USTA to participate in the wild-card playoff in Florida, and she won it.

Capra won her first match here against Karolina Sprem, then came up with a huge effort against 18th-seeded Aravane Rezai, beating her in three sets on Thursday. That set up Saturday afternoon's encounter with Sharapova, a player that Capra has always admired, primarily for her mental toughness.

"She's a pretty tough girl herself," said Capra's coach, Federico Ricci, who works at Chris Evert's Tennis Academy in Delray Beach, Fla. "I pretty much always coached boys, but when I started coaching her in January, I didn't have to change my style. She is very, very tough- minded."

Capra is mentored by Evert, whose chief weapon was a tough mind. "We exchanged e-mails last night," Capra said. "She really didn't have any advice as to playing Maria, but she told me to just relax and enjoy the moment."

This is the second straight Open that an American teenager has made a deep impression. Last year it was Melanie Oudin who made it through four rounds. Oudin went out in the second round this year, so now it is Capra - ranked 371 in the world, still an amateur and the youngest player remaining in the tournament - who carries the torch for the future of American women's tennis.

This isn't any particular burden to her. Unlike Oudin, who came into the Open last year after a round of 16 showing at Wimbledon, Capra wasn't subject to anyone else's expectations at the start of this tournament. She was free to play for herself. Heck, the pressure is all on dad.

"He can't stand it," said Laurie MacGill, Capra's mother. "He's only been to one of the Slams that Treecee played [as a junior], at the French. He scheduled a sales meeting for his company this week, but he'll probably come."

Giovani Capra is from Monza, Italy. He came to America to start a plastics company called Tenax Corporation.

"While he was there in Maryland, my mom taught tennis lessons," Beatrice said. "He wanted to take tennis lessons, so they met up and here I am."

Yes, here she is, and Sharapova wasn't sure what to think about it. After she won her second-round match she was asked what she knew of Capra:

"I know that she's American and she's 18, I believe, and she's in the third round of the Open. So that says a lot."