Background
Capalik was born in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Capalik was born in Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina.
His Bosnian Croat father and Bosnian Serb mother owned and operated casinos, which would be destroyed in the war. The family left the city on April 4, 1992 and sought refuge in the Netherlands, where Kristian"s grandmother lived. Alen went to Philadelphia and Kristian was accepted into the Palmer Tennis Academy in Tampa.
Capalik was a doubles finalist at the 1996 Orange Bowl junior tournament, partnering Slovenian Miha Gregorc.
They were beaten in the final by the Czechoslovakian pairing of Petr Kralert and Robin Vik. He played his first Association of Tennis Professionals Tour tournament in 2000, the Legg Mason Tennis Classic, held in Washington, District of Columbia Capalik reached the quarter-finals of the Miller Lite Hall of Fame Championships at Newport in 2001, with wins over Justin Gimelstob and fellow qualifier Jeff Salzenstein.
He was eliminated from the tournament by James Blake. He was unable to make it past the first round at either the 2001 Heineken Trophy or 2001 Legg Mason Tennis Classic, losing to Guillermo Cañas and Paradorn Srichaphan respectively.
In Houston the following year he took part in the United States. Men"s Clay Court Championships but also lost in the opening round, to Spaniard Álex Calatrava.
On the Association of Tennis Professionals Challenger circuit, Capalik made four singles quarter-finals and five doubles semi-finals.
Also that year he won the Portuguese Washington Tennis Academy"s International Junior Championships and was runner-up at the USTA Junior International Grass Court Championships in Philadelphia and a losing finalist at the South American Banana Bowl competition. In 1998, Capalik appeared in five Davis Cup ties for the Bosnia and Herzegovina team, all of which were played in Togo. He won five of his eight rubbers, three in singles and two in doubles. After beating Michael Russell in the opening round, Capalik faced world number 47 Karol Kučera and won the first set. In the second set he was up 5-1 and made it to match point, but Kucera came back and won in three sets.
