Can Hingis overcome latest stumble?

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Asked last week to respond to Marcelo Rios' digs at women's tennis, Martina Hingis suppressed the urge to talk trash. Her tongue embedded firmly in her cheek, she said of the oft-injured former No. 1, "It's great to see him play well again." Did she have no more ammunition? "What," Hingis responded, "is ammunition?"

That, in a nutshell, describes Hingis' woes over the past few years. Even with the computer rankings serving as a partner in crime, Hingis hasn't been tennis' top player for three years. She plays wonderfully intuitive, clever tennis and is one of the all-time great thinkers and strategists. But her lack of power -- her dearth of ammunition -- has been fatal to her success.

Hingis is the rare -- perhaps lone -- player who can go a set without missing a ball. But so long as her second serve slogs over the net at 65 mph and her up-the-line forehand is a loopy, topspin meatball, she is vulnerable as a mollusk with no shell, particularly against opponents to whom she's conceding six inches of height and 30-50 pounds of mass. As one commentator put it last week, "Hingis is playing 20th-century tennis. She is a great player who was born in the wrong era." What's more, even when she is able to beat one of the power sluggers, another looms. Get by Kim Clijsters, and Jennifer Capriati awaits. Get by Venus Williams, and Serena lurks. Beat Monica Seles, and Lindsay Davenport comes next.

Still, it looked as though the tennis gods had finally smiled on Hingis at this event. Neither Davenport nor Serena Williams were in the draw. Venus Williams was beaten by Seles. Hingis, who waltzed through to the semis without facing a top-20 opponent, got by a tired Seles in the semis and then faced Capriati when the defending champ was far from her best. If ever there were an opportune time to win, this was it. The oddsmakers here were so confident that Hingis would break her losing streak that, despite her being the lower seed, she was a 2-to-1 favorite.

For all the times Hingis' body failed her, she was always able to rely on her head and her supreme confidence. Lately, that has turned on her, too. In the semifinals she had Seles down 5-2 in the third set before dropping two sweaty-palmed games, missing a gimme overhead and barely escaping 6-4. Then the deluge. On Saturday against Capriati, Hingis was up a set and 4-0, then held match points on four separate occasions. Hingis played scared, as though she were trying not to win but rather to run out the clock. We know the sadistic ending. In the locker room afterward, she wondered aloud whether it wouldn't have been better to have lost 6-2, 6-2. I lost to a better player. It wasn't my day. Rationalizing that loss would have been easy.

By contrast, the way she lost on Saturday could do extensive psychological damage. The next time Hingis is in a similar position, how will she not be burdened? Likewise, Hingis' inability to close out the match will hardly go unnoticed by her rivals. When one gets in a tight match with Hingis, rest assured she will remember Hingis' vulnerability. "Now she's not as intimidating," Capriati said after the match. "She's kind of lost that edge a little bit."

To her everlasting credit, Hingis could scarcely have been more gracious in defeat. A testament to how far she's come personally, if not professionally, in the past three years, she confronted her meltdown head on. "The last few matches, I've had this problem to close it out," she admitted. "I have to work through it." There was no blaming the conditions. Or the fact that she had played six sets of doubles over the previous 48 hours. Or the ankle that had gone under the knife just a few months ago.

But make no mistake, this loss was devastating. Long ago, Hingis resigned herself to her unfortunate physical stature. But knowing that she was a point from winning a Grand Slam title and couldn't seal the deal ... players have quit the sport over less. How soon and how thoroughly will Hingis recover from Saturday's defeat? The answer may well chart the path of the rest of her career.

Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim covers tennis for the magazine. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.

 

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