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Another phoenix
rises from the ashes. Jennifer Capriati has come full circle in a personal
journey marked by extremes of both talent and tragedy. After charging
through the rankings at the recent Australian Open, obliterating both
Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis on the way to her first Grand Slam
Championship, Capriati has finally begun to fulfill the mammoth expectations
heaped upon her ten years ago when she first made her debut as a tennis
teen phenomenon.
A poster
child for the dangers of “too much, too soon,” her eventual emotional
unraveling still serves as a cautionary tale for pushy stage-parents everywhere.
Now back in the winner’s circle at age 24, after putting it all together
with the help of her father/coach, she has proven she can hold her own
against the best in the world.
Almost
Superhuman
 Capriati
is a fiery, competitive Aries, born March 29, 1976 in New York City. Her
birth chart is dominated by a tight opposition between her impulsive Aries
Sun and her compulsive Pluto in Libra. Pluto is a planet of intensity
and extremes, never doing anything halfway. The dynamic energy contained
within that Sun-Pluto combination is an awesome force that can move mountains
on its good days, and then turn around and completely self destruct under
pressure. This almost superhuman power is a given with a Sun-Pluto combination,
but using it constructively, rather than destructively, takes some practice.
The psychological
currents running back and forth across a planetary opposition tend to
pull the personality in two directions at once. The individual struggles
in a perpetual balancing act to get the two extremes to meet in the middle.
Even if that delicate balance is achieved, the opposition reasserts itself
at the next level, and another series of challenges begin.
The Sun in
an individual’s chart often represents the masculine or father principle.
If the Sun is in a difficult aspect, or relationship, to the planet Pluto,
power struggles and control issues with the father and/or male authority
figures can pose a real challenge to the development of the young ego.
Capriati has already covered that spectrum in her stormy relationship
with her father, and to their credit, they now seem to have achieved a
healthy, and highly functional, balance between their personal extremes.
The
Aquarian Australian Open
The Australian
Open is the only Aquarian Grand Slam event in a traditionally summer sport
(meaning it is the only Grand Slam event held when the Sun is in Aquarius,
from mid-January to mid-February). In keeping with the nature of its eccentric
Sun sign, the tournament features its fair share of surprise results.
The 2001 Open was aching for an upset, and Jennifer Capriati happened
to be in the right place at the right time.
There are
many different ways to spell upset, but most of them involve the planet
Uranus. Uranus is the oddball ruler of the sign Aquarius and is notorious
for its stubborn eccentricity. There is nothing normal about Uranus, including
its orbit. Uranus is the only planet that rotates about an axis that is
parallel to, rather than perpendicular to, the ecliptic, so it has a different
take on everything. If Uranus is especially active during a match, any
number of strange things can take place.
During the
finals between Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati, Uranus was temporarily
engaged in an irritating square, or 90-degree angle, to the planet
Mars in Scorpio. Mars is a particularly energetic and athletic planet, and
its competitive nature is intensified in its home sign of Scorpio (Aries is Mars' other home sign). With
Mars closing in on the difficult right angle to Uranus in Aquarius, it
was just a matter of time before the fireworks began.
Martina
Hingis
Martina
Hingis, the odds-on favorite to win the finals, was born September 30,
1980 in Kosice in the Czech Republic. Hingis has a conjunction between
Mars and Uranus in the sign of Scorpio in her birth chart. The planet
Uranus is currently making a square to Hingis’ Mars, just as it is to
Mars in the chart of the Australian Open. Capriati also has a Mars-Uranus
connection. Her Mars in Cancer is linked harmoniously in a trine (120
degree) aspect to her natal Uranus in Scorpio.
Obviously,
both players were born with strong, natal Mars-Uranus energy. However,
while Hingis’ Mars was at odds with that oddball Mars-Uranus energy during
the match, Capriati’s natal Mars and Uranus were in much better shape,
both receiving a helpful trine (120 degrees) aspect from the Moon, which
was in Pisces.
Adding to
the unusual atmosphere, the Sun in Aquarius was conjunct the foggy planet
Neptune at the time of the Open. Neptune often figures into upset configurations,
but its influence is different than that of Uranus. Neptune is linked
to the sympathetic underdog, the little guy struggling against overwhelming
odds. This combination of strange influences and the way they interacted
within the charts of both players, paved the way for Jennifer Capriati
to shock the tennis world in straight sets.
Planets can’t
give an athlete the victory. Capriati has worked so hard to put herself
and her game back together that she richly deserves all the credit for
this stirring comeback. When the astrological opportunity arose, she had
thoroughly prepared herself to make the most of it. There’s still a lot
of great tennis left in this fiery champion. She has finally arrived at
her rightful place in the world: Challenging Martina, Lindsay and the
wonderful Williams
sisters to the delight of millions for years to come.
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