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1. Martina
Hingis
Age:
16
Height:
5'6"
Weight:
115
Birthplace:
Kosice,
Slovakia
Highest Rank:
1
(Current)
Career Titles:
10
Best U.S. Open Finish:
Semifinals,
1996
Can't Touch
This: Hingis has won
nine tournaments in 1997, including the Australian Open and
Wimbledon. She began the year by winning her first 40
matches. She passed $1 million in career earnings one month
after her 16th
birthday.
Expert
Opinion:
"She has all the shots. She's not the fastest player,
but she has great court sense. The only limit she might
have is her
height."—Martina Navratilova on
Hingis
Youth Is
Served: Last March, when she was ranked No. 1 for the first time,
Hingis was 16 years, six months old. That made her the
youngest tennis player ever to reach the top
spot.
2. Monica
Seles
Age:
23
Height:
5'10 1/2"
Weight:
145
Birthplace:
Novi Sad,
Yugoslavia
Highest Rank:
1 (Most recently in November
1996)
Current:
2
Career Titles:
39
Best U.S. Open
Finish: Winner, 1991,
'92
Last Year:
Runner-up
A Sense of
Perspective: "You shouldn't cry over losing a tennis match.
Tennis is a sport. If you lose a mom or a dad or a dear
friend, it's different, but I think tennis is a
game."
I Can't Heeaarr
You!: Seles has one of the loudest and most annoying grunts in
tennis. At Wimbledon in 1992, Martina Navratilova
complained to an umpire that Seles's grunting was an unfair
distraction. "She sounds like a stuck pig,"
Navratilova
said.
It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad
World: Despite her nine Grand Slam titles, Seles is probably
best known as the victim of a senseless attack. During a
changeover in a 1993 match in Germany, Seles was stabbed in
the back by a crazed Steffi Graf fan. Seles did not return
to competition until
August
1995.
Profiles by Stephen Thomas
Next two seeds
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