NEW YORK -- The groundstrokes, deep and alarmingly low, flew from the baseline. The serve was erratic, but effective. Each of the five trips to the net resulted in success.

And when her 6-0, 6-0 first-round U.S. Open match with Bethanie Mattek was over Tuesday night -- in a disorientingly scant 44 minutes -- Jennifer Capriati offered the appreciative Arthur Ashe Stadium crowd her waving, triumphant 360-degree twirl. A timeless classic, to be sure.

It was, Capriati said, "great, almost flawless tennis," which, of course, it was.

Did she feel sorry for Mattek, a 17-year-old Floridian in only her second Grand Slam match?

"No," Capriati said, eyes narrowing. "I'm not out there to feel sorry for anybody. Once you start that, you never know.

"You know, it's got to be a lesson, too. She's got to learn. She's got to experience it out there. I mean, it will make her tougher."

Next up, the redoubtable Slovenian, Tina Pisnik. Rest assured that Capriati, 26, will wreck havoc and destruction on Pisnik and whoever follows in the third round (Meghann Shaughnessy?) and fourth (Magdalena Maleeva?). But what will happen when Capriati reaches the quarterfinals, where she may well encounter Amelie Mauresmo or the semifinals and a probable date with Venus Williams? That, tennis fans, is a very open question.

Capriati finds herself at a curious juncture in her tennis career. After failing to win a Grand Slam singles title in 28 previous attempts dating all the way back to 1990, she broke through 11 years later with back-to-back victories in last year's Australian Open and French Open.

It was a wonderfully uplifting story, perhaps the sports story of 2001. Capriati followed that up with semifinal appearances at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open, losing to Justine Henin and Venus Williams.

The 2002 season began just as impressively when Capriati overcame a ludicrous 4-6, 0-4 deficit to defeat Martina Hingis in the Australian Open final. Capriati was tenacious in stifling conditions and became the first woman to ever save four match points in a Grand Slam final. At that point, she had won three of five Grand Slam championships and made the semis in the other two. She was the best player in the game.

Since then, it has been a little squirrelly for Capriati.

She lost to Serena Williams in the semifinals of the French Open and fell in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to Mauresmo. In fact, Capriati has lost all four of her matches this year against the younger Williams -- in Scottsdale, Miami, Rome and Paris. She was defeated for the second time by Mauresmo two weeks ago in Montreal, begging this obvious question:

Can she handle the heat (or is it just fashion fission?) Venus and Serena Williams are throwing these days, or were those three Slam titles -- all achieved within a narrow window of a single year -- all Capriati's going to get?

"My goal," Capriati lectured, "is to try to win the tournament and try to play my best and win matches. My goal is not to disrupt a Williams final. That's taking away from the actual game. It's like, you know, they're owning the game and I'm trying to stop them from owning it. There's a lot of other things that make this game besides them."

Capriati has always been an emotional player, but there have been some exceptionally rough patches this year. She struggled with her composure in the matches against Mauresmo and has continually sniped at the Williams sisters. Capriati, who lost her No. 1 ranking to Venus late last year and saw the sisters take up residence at Nos. 1 and 2 the day after the French Open, suggested the Williams got there by cleverly avoiding each other.

She added that their ascendance had a lot to do with the absence of injured Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis.

"Mostly, I think it's because not all of the top girls are playing right now," Capriati said after losing to Serena at the French Open. "It would be nice to see what would happen when the others come."

Which brings us back to the U.S. Open, where Davenport and Hingis happen to be back and looking reasonably fit. Capriati's affection for Richard Williams, too, is in mid-tournament form.

Told that the father of Venus and Serena had some advice for Capriati -- swear less on the court and listen to your father more -- Capriati couldn't resist the urge to send the ball back onto his side of the court.

"I have nothing to say about what he says," Capriati said before she proceeded to say something. "I mean, it's just a waste of time. I mean, you can see how ignorant that sounds and how disrespectful that sounds. I mean, he should just, you know, concentrate on his daughters, and he's doing a good job."

Later Capriati talked about the irony that Richard Williams often talks about respect but appears to give her little.

"It's too bad. It's no class. ... I've never said anything personal, just about the game itself. But, you know, I could say things about them, but I'm not going to because I'm not going to lower myself to that."

Overall, Capriati said she was pleased with her fitness level and confident in her game.

"It's a long season, a long year and it's hard for me to gear up and play well in every tournament. It's hard to maintain that level constantly. I'm gradually progressing. It's coming together for me now. It's a process."

Capriati paused and sighed a serious sigh.

"I'm aiming for the big one."

Greg Garber is the senior editor at ESPN.com.