Just a few minutes after defending his Australian Open title, Andre Agassi turned his thoughts to fellow American Jennifer Capriati, the winner of the women's title. "I guess," Agassi said, "that it's a story a lot of people can identify with, and one that is a credit to tennis and a credit to the human spirit." There is no doubting that.

Capriati was a professional at the age of 13 and hailed as a prodigy a year later, in 1990, when she reached the semi-finals at Roland Garros. Two further semi-finals, at Wimbledon and Flushing Meadows, came the next year, and then, at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, she startled the world by defeating Germany's Steffi Graf for the gold medal on red clay.

It appeared there was nothing she might not achieve, but suddenly Capriati's world fell apart.

She experienced depression and was unable to motivate herself, and then suffered further problems in her private life (such as it was), being charged with shop-lifting, and later being found in possession of drugs.

Distraught, mixed up and unable to cope with pressures of the sport, and the expectations of her father, Stefano, she turned her back on tennis for two years, before making the first of a series comebacks that were frequently painful, tearful and abortive.

She wanted to be back in the tennis limelight, and she also wanted to be left alone. It seemed, despite her best intentions, and the continued support of many, that she was finished as a player. Then, in 1999, and still only 23, the first signs of the renaissance appeared with tournament wins in Strasbourg and Quebec City.

That same year, at the US Open, she read a carefully-prepared statement admitting that all her problems had been her fault, and that she now hoped everybody would draw a line under the past and help her to move forward. It was both brave and cathartic, though even then it appeared the game had moved on too quickly for Capriati to play catch-up.

And this is what made her 6-4 6-3 victory over Switzerland's Martina Hingis on Saturday so special, for it was a triumph of spirit over self-doubt, and exemplified the enduring bond between father and daughter.

Stefano Capriati, born in the Italian city of Brindisi, has been blamed for pushing his daughter too hard and too soon. His punishment, if such it was, was to lose control of the person he loved the most and watch in horror and sadness as she all but self-destructed. Now, as in those early and traumatic days, he is coaching her again, but this time the relationship is much different. For a start, he cannot tell her when to go to bed.

Capriati was asked if she could compare her first grand slam win with the Olympic title. "That actually seems like another life. This is a new life, a different life. It's like winning something for the first time again."

This was Hingis' fourth successive grand slam final defeat, and once again she was overpowered; wins over the Williams sisters may have taken their toll, perhaps mentally as much as physically. There was no doubting her fitness, but Capriati was in equally good shape.

Having raced to a 5-1 first set lead, the American managed to take only two points from the next two games, and went on to miss two set points on the Hingis serve. The match appeared to be swinging in favour of the world number one, but these setbacks stiffened rather than weakened Capriati's resolve.