Rising From The Ashes

Early success can be heady and hard to sustain. Young achievers share their secrets of dealing with the crests and troughs

- Kathakali Chanda

In March 1990, a few days shy of her 14th birthday, Jennifer Capriati appeared on the cover of the prestigious Sports Illustrated, hitting a double-handed backhand next to a cover line that screamed “And She’s Only 13!” There couldn’t have been a more fitting use of the exclamation mark, given that by then the American tennis sensation had already reached the final of her first professional tournament, and signed endorsement deals with Italian clothing line Diadora and racket manufacturer Prince that could earn her a potential $6 million annually.

In 1992, Capriati won an Olympic gold beating SteffiGraf, one of the greatest women players of all time. Exactly a year later, in August 1993, it all unravelled. She lost in the first round of the US Open and disappeared from the circuit only to hit the headlines in the months thereafter, first for shoplifting and then possessing marijuana. Neither of the charges stuck for good, but long enough to script a CV that read prodigy at 13 and broken at 17. “I burnt out, I’ll say it,” Capriati told the New York Times in an interview in 1994. She recovered to reach the top 10 and won a few Grand Slams in the early-noughties, but recurrent injuries ended the comeback trail after the 2004 season.

The pursuit of success can be Sisyphean. The journey to the top is often fraught with the risk of coming undone. Consider prodigious Indian leg spinner Laxman Sivaramakrishnan. Siva routed the visiting English team in 1984-85, when he wasn’t even 19. He was adjudged Man of the Series and followed it up helping the team win the World Series in Australia in 1985. Two years later, he played his last international match. Or actor Pooja Bhatt, who delivered hits like Daddy, Dil Hai Ke Manta Nahin, Sadak, Zakhm and Tamanna in the late-1980s and ’90s, only to fade away as she fought alcoholism.