 |
| |
|
 |
 |
||
 |
 |
||
 |
|||
EVENTS
CENTERS
CNNSI.com GROUP
COMMERCE
|
 |
Finally, some excitement Hingis goes down to the final point to beat Majoli
Updated: Saturday September 01, 2001 12:46 AM
NEW YORK (AP) -- Martina Hingis and Iva Majoli slugged it out for 2 1/2 hours in sweltering heat Friday in the U.S. Open, and when they finished it was difficult to tell the winner from the loser. The two players met at the net, grinned and embraced, just glad to still be standing. In a match that was sloppy but grueling, Hingis blew a 3-0 lead in the final set, then rallied from a 4-2 deficit in a winner-take-all-tiebreaker for the victory, 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (5). A loss would have allowed Jennifer Capriati to overtake Hingis for the No. 1 ranking by reaching the semifinals next week. Instead, Hingis moved unsteadily into the fourth round, where she'll face 14th-seeded Jelena Dokic. "Today's match was just not the best I ever played," Hingis said. "Being two points away from losing, it can't get much worse."
"At 4-2, I really felt like I was going to throw up," the former French Open champion said. "I just looked at the chairperson about what I should do, and she was just like, 'Come on, let's play.' And for the next two or three points I was rushing because I wasn't really there. I was really exhausted." Another victim of the heat was wild card James Blake, a former Harvard standout. Blake delighted an overflow crowd at Louis Armstrong Stadium by taking a lead against fourth-seeded Lleyton Hewitt. But with temperatures in the mid-80s on a sunny, humid afternoon, the 21-year-old American threw up during a changeover midway through the fourth set and struggled to finish, losing 6-4, 3-6, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0. "I've come a long way," Blake said. "I'm about as proud as I could be. I couldn't have done anything else out there." In the final match of the second round, Andy Roddick advanced one day after his 19th birthday, holding off a late charge by American qualifier Jack Brasington to win 6-2, 6-1, 5-7, 7-6 (4). Wimbledon champion Goran Ivanisevic swept American Justin Gimelstob 6-3, 6-3, 6-3. No. 1-seeded Gustavo Kuerten beat Kristian Pless 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. No. 7 Yevgenvy Kafelnikov improved his career record in five-setters to 18-8 by rallying past George Bastl 2-6, 5-7, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3. "I just proved another time to myself that no matter how big of a hole you're in, you still have a small chance to come out of there," Kafelnikov said. In other women's play, No. 3 Lindsay Davenport, No. 7 Monica Seles and No. 10 Serena Williams easily advanced. Seles beat Eleni Daniilidou 6-2, 6-3. Williams beat Martina Sucha 6-1, 6-0. No. 14 Jelena Dokic eliminated 1994 champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-4, 7-5. American Meghann Shaughnessy, seeded 12th, lost to Daja Bedanova 6-4, 6-1. Hingis' close call was perhaps another sign of her decline. She hasn't won a major title in 2 1/2 years, lost in the first round at Wimbledon and clings to No. 1 only by playing more tournaments than the other top players. For Majoli, the narrow defeat was cause for encouragement. Her victory in the 1997 French Open final deprived Hingis of a Grand Slam sweep, but Majoli has rarely been heard from since. "Everyone thinks I was home partying," she joked. Two shoulder operations set the Croat back, but she's healthy now and her ranking -- now No. 47 -- is on the rise. "I'm tired of everyone saying, ''97 French Open,'" Majoli said. "I'm like, forget that. Now it's 2001. I want to win another one." Whether Hingis can win another one is problematic. She's only 20, but at 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds she can't match the power of the top players. The quickness and shotmaking that helped her dominate the game in 1997 are no longer enough. "Martina is very similar to where she was in '97," Majoli said. "But I think a few other girls improved. They're playing very powerful tennis, and it's a little bit more difficult for Martina against these girls." Majoli herself nearly overpowered Hingis, who was battling a cold and looking lethargic at the outset. They played mostly from the baseline, with Majoli usually the aggressor. She hit 35 groundstroke winners but had 61 unforced errors to 31 for Hingis. Majoli, bothered by a sore right thigh and a blister on her right hand, received treatment from a trainer early in the third set. But she said it was the heat that took the biggest toll. "I should improve a little bit more my fitness," she said with a laugh. "I'm going to do that this winter and really work so I can throw up at home, you know?"
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
