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  Adam Karon Karon is missing out on the beautiful summer weather to save money so he can spend four days in the rain at Wimbledon next year. Send comments and encouragement to gianthater@yahoo.com.

Many of us would not trade our teenage years for anything. Summer baseball, spring soccer, lazy days at the beach, special nights at high school dances and building homecoming floats are memories as sweet as a smooth backhand volley.

Few of us would choose to miss out on life from the age of 13 to 23. That is what Jennifer Capriati did, and you might have done it too, if you had developed a lightning forehand and a deadly drop shot. It also would help if your father were overbearing, and perhaps you ignored your friends in favor of five-hour practice sessions and grueling weekend tournaments. Capriati is the poster girl for tennis players skipping college, high school, and even junior high for the chance to pursue a dream and make millions of dollars.

Capriati shocked the tennis world, and teeny-bopping New Kids on the Block fans everywhere, when she officially became a professional tennis player in 1989 at the age of 13.

While most kids her age were wearing Cross Colors and Airwalks, Capriati’s sponsors at Fila were fitting her for tiny tennis skirts. When she was fighting to become the youngest Grand Slam semi-finalist in history at the 1990 French Open, her peers were fighting over who got to slow dance with Johnny Cool-Guy at the junior high sock-hop.

Capriati was so young and innocent that, when asked what she would do after a big win, she responded, “I want to go home and play with my new puppy.” As fans, we thought it was so cute. In retrospect, it was so sad.

Much has been made recently of the incredible numbers of high school basketball players leaping to the NBA. Critics point out that these 18-year-olds do not know how to handle the millions of dollars they could claim as top lottery picks. They argue that those who do not make an NBA roster are left with no education, no money, and no direction in life.

When Capriati was 13 she signed a $3 million deal with Diadora. I wonder if she had learned to write in cursive, let alone handle millions of dollars. I don’t know about you, but when I was 13 a few bucks meant I could buy another pack of baseball cards. Capriati could have bought the baseball card store.

Those attacking the NBA for allowing youngsters to skip college argue that young men are often ill suited to handle the pressure that comes with being a national sports icon. Or worse, they may not be drafted at all and without college eligibility lose any chance of establishing a profession. This argument rarely surfaces in the sport of tennis.

Why are tennis players outside the scope of attention when it comes to premature professionalism in sports? While basketball players must wait until they are 18, and baseball players must be at least 16, tennis stars can jump from gym class to clay courts the month they turn 14.

The majority of the teen queens come from middle-class backgrounds, and maybe that is why the media and social critics do not react. But perhaps this lack of media outcry should increase the uneasiness so many feel towards what has now become a sanctioned practice.

If an inner-city basketball or football player turns pro to help support his family, he should be lauded as a hero who achieved his dream for the benefit of others. But what about the likes of Capriati, Martina Hingis and the Williams sisters and the countless others who leave their teenage years in the rear view mirror for a chance to play center court at Wimbledon? I wonder if they regret their decisions.

There was probably a time in her life when Capriati wished she had never seen a fuzzy green ball. I am not one to argue that the pressure of professional tennis drove her to rebellion, which peaked with an arrest for shoplifting, because I believe that the troubles she faced are not entirely unique to teenage girls. At the same time, it must have been utterly embarrassing to have her trials and tribulations published on a daily basis. Some would consider Capriati lucky.

Former tennis phenom Tracy Austin is an example of what the tennis establishment can do to the career of a superstar. In 1979, at the age of 16, Austin became the youngest woman to win the U.S. Open. Against competitors who were nearly twice her age, Austin won that event for the second time in 1981. Three years later she was out of tennis, forever remembered as a victim of the tennis system that pushes young girls beyond their capabilities.

Austin’s story is not unusual, but we rarely hear about her fellow fallouts. I wonder what happens to those who give away their high school and college years yet never achieve the success Austin and Capriati did.

In an era where major sports are coming under increasing scrutiny for the rising number of teenagers participating at the professional level, tennis is sneaking out the back door with a clean, white, neatly pressed skirt and a confident smirk on its youthful face. No one seems to mind that tennis stars often face the pressures of professional life much too early. That is probably because we rarely hear about those who do not make it on the court. They fade like a tennis ball left in the sun, and all we see are the rare success stories of Martina Hingis, the Williams sisters, and in the end, Jennifer Capriati.

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