Former tennis star asked to appear in court over charges of stalking & punching ex-lover
Former tennis World No 1 Jennifer Capriati has been summoned to appear in court on April 17 to face allegations she stalked an ex-boyfriend and punched him on Valentine’s Day.
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36-year-old Capriati was charged with stalking and with battery over an alleged incident on February 14 in which she had an altercation with Ivan Brannan at the Oxygen Health & Wellness gym in North Palm Beach, Florida, court records show.
A police report said that while Brannan was working out, Capriati “started screaming” at him and punched him four times in the chest “with a closed fist.”
After a yoga instructor intervened, Brannan locked himself in the men’s locker room and called emergency services. He told police Capriati had been harassing him since they broke up in February 2012. They had been dating for more than a year.
The three-time Grand Slam champion, who won Olympic gold in Barcelona in 1992, has not been arrested.u00a0A publicist for Capriati has dismissed as an “over-exaggeration” the facts in the police report based on Brannan’s account.
Capriati’s career has been overshadowed by personal problems, including incidents of shoplifting and drugs.u00a0She was charged with cannabis possession in 1994 and spent time in a drug rehabilitation clinic before struggling to return to the game. In 2010, she survived a prescription drug overdose.