 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|
 |
Hingis keeps treading water
By Jon Wertheim, Sports Illustrated
In 1997 she lost a sloppy French Open final to a Croatian baseliner, Iva Majoli. Had she won that match, she would have laid claim to the Grand Slam. That season she won 13 tournaments and lapped the nearest competitor in ranking points. "That was a great year," she said. "But already it seems a long time ago." For a glimpse of how much time has elapsed since Hingis' halcyon days, one only had to see her third-round match Friday against a game Majoli. Played in humid conditions that resembled a wet wash cloth, Hingis prevailed 4-6, 6-4, 7-6. But the match laid bare how deeply her confidence has fissured. Ranked No. 47, Majoli is a player Hingis should handle with ease -- particularly since Majoli was so dog tired that she was ready to "pull a Sampras, " as one scribe delicately put it. Yet time and again, Hingis eased up on the clutch. Serving for the match at 5-4, she played tighter than an Ashley Harkleroad outfit and won a solitary point. Serving again at 6-5, she spun in serves that traveled about as quickly as Long Island Expressway traffic and was pushed to a tiebreaker. Even in the final game, Hingis kicked in a double fault and betrayed a fluency in losing body language. When she finally won, her face was bathed in relief, not joy. "Overall, it wasn't the greatest day," she said afterward. Years ago Hingis reached the irreducible conclusion that, at her height and weight, she wasn't going to overpower players. Rather, she'd rely on her consistency and clever tactics -- "my tennis mind," as she puts it. Yet that, too, has failed her lately. When Hingis faces a bigger player -- an increasingly frequent occurrence -- she feels an inexplicable impulse to stand toe-to-toe and slug it out from the baseline. (The results are similar to what would happen if Shane Moseley were to fight Lennox Lewis; superior skills do little good against a monstrously larger opponent.) Friday against the 5-foot-11 Majoli, Hingis utilized few angles and approached the net only to retrieve drop shots, opting instead to stand back and bang. "Other plays tell me, 'We'd love to see you more at the net,'" said Hingis. "That's the way I can win, I know. I have to get there myself." While Hingis is stubbornly intent on showing her brawn from the baseline, her serve remains a meatball worthy of Little Italy. At 5-7, Hingis isn't going to commence points with 120 mph bombs. Yet as 5-5 Justine Henin routinely cranks serves in excess of 105 mph -- and even petite Meilen Tu can hit triple digits -- Hingis ought to be able to do better than the patisserie-quality creampuffs she propped up for Majoli Friday. "I definitely have to do something about that," she conceded. "I have to consider more double faults, but going for it more." As the losses mount and her deficit of power becomes ever easier to exploit, Hingis' aura has ebbed. Though she is the top seed, one would have to look high and low to find any fan who predicts she'll win here. It's at the point where other players even look forward to playing her. Consider Jelena Dokic, who called Hingis out Apollo Creed -style. "I actually wanted her to win," said Dokic, who beat Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario and then got her wish. "I wanted to play her again. She hasn't been playing very well this year and I'm surprised that she's still No. 1. But she's still one of the best players out there." If there was a silver lining to Friday's close call, it was that Hingis did, finally, win the last point. Down 5-3 in the tiebreak -- two points from being the first No. 1 seed to lose this early since Billie Jean King 25 years ago -- Hingis showed off her improved conditioning as well as her mettle and pulled out the match. In a perverse way, this struggle may give Hingis confidence heading into the second week. As she pointed out, "It can't get much worse." Still, there is a gnawing feeling that until her tactics change, it's not about to get much better anytime soon.
Half volleysJim Martz of Florida Tennis magazine and Kevin Janison of KLAS-TV in Las Vegas received the USTA Media Excellence awards. ... Want to see the male version of Henin's gorgeous backhand? Check out Tommy Robredo, who beat Todd Martin 6-3, 7-5, 3-6 Friday. ... 12th-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy look decidedly out of sort in losing to Daja Bedanova 6-4, 6-1. ... Owing to snarled traffic and a scheduling snafu, Elena Dementieva arrived late to her doubles match. She and Janette Jusarova were defaulted. ... The No. 2-seeded doubles team of Virginia Ruano Pascal and Paola Suarez made fast work of American wild cards Megan Bradley and Erin Burdette. Bradley's father is former Seattle Mariners slugger Phil Bradley. ... Retiring midway through his match against rising star Mikhail Youzhny means Jan-Michael Gambill won a total of one match at the four Slams this year. ... A player losing in the first round of singles, doubles and mixed doubles still walks away with $25,500. And all the towels s/he can steal.
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jon Wertheim will file daily reports from Flushing Meadows. Click here to send a question to his Tennis Mailbag.
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
