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Hingis gets support from Kournikova

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Posted: Saturday June 05, 1999 04:23 PM

Boo who? The hostile crowd brought Hingis to tears, but her mother convinced Martina to go back and accept her trophy. AP

PARIS (AP) -- When Martina Hingis left the court after her final loss to Steffi Graf, Hingis' doubles partner Anna Kournikova was there to console her in the locker room.

"Anna came to the locker room and hugged me and said 'You were better out there,'" Hingis said.

France's Nathalie Tauziat also helped Hingis cope a little bit with her loss.

Hingis said she didn't really want to come back out to the court to accept the runner-up trophy because the crowd was booing her. Her mother Melanie Molitor convinced her to go back out.

"If my mother wouldn't have been there, I wouldn't have come back," said Hingis.

Anke, Andrei and Andre

Love-struck Andrei Medvedev has made it no secret that happiness in his personal life has attributed to his success in tennis. Andre Agassi said Saturday that being in love or not doesn't affect his play.

"I don't feel like him that being in love makes any difference to me," said Agassi.

"He's a good guy and I'm happy to hear that," he said of Medvedev. "I prefer if he let his girlfriend play for him instead, with all due respect for her game."

Medvedev's girlfriend is the 30-ranked German player Anke Huber. Huber has come to Paris to watch him play in the semifinals and the final.

In an interview with French daily Le Parisien on Saturday, Huber said she wouldn't want to play for him but she does imagine herself in Medvedev's place when she watches him play.

"I look at his stroke, I try to see what I could do if I was on the court, the way I would play," she said.

Injury update

Jana Novotna is still cautious with her sprained ankle. The Wimbledon champion was seen Friday in a wheelchair on the Roland Garros grounds to keep the pressure off her right ankle.

Novotna severely sprained her ankle while playing doubles Wednesday. The X-rays that were taken Wednesday night confirmed that nothing was broken, but there is ligament damage.

It's still unsure whether Novotna will be able to defend her title at Wimbledon. Williams & Williams

The Williams sisters advanced to the doubles final Saturday when they beat Lindsay Davenport and Mary Pierce in the semifinals.

Venus and Serena will get a shot at a French Open doubles title Sunday when they face Martina Hingis and Anna Kournikova.

The men's final, meanwhile, was halted Saturday by rain. Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India led Goran Ivanisevic of Croatia and Jeff Tarango of the United States, 6-2, 5-5. The match will be continued Sunday.

 

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