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Just terrific at Pan Pacific Hingis needs just 74 minutes to claim championship
Posted: Sunday February 06, 2000 09:16 AM
TOKYO (AP) - Martina Hingis showed once again Sunday that she is unbeatable for most women tennis players except, perhaps, Lindsay Davenport, the Williams sisters and a few other hard hitters. Hingis, the defending champion and top-seeded player, pounded out a 6-3, 7-5 victory in 74 minutes over sixth seed Sandrine Testud for her third career title of the Toray Pan Pacific Open women's tennis. She first won it in 1997. Before Hingis, only Steffi Graf and Gabriela Sabatini had won the tournament three times. After receiving $166,000 singles prize money from a purse of $1.08 million, Hingis partnered with Mary Pierce of France to win the doubles event with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Alexandra Fusai and Nathalie Tauziat of France. For their doubles win, Hingis and Pierce won $25,500 each. Hingis has excelled in doubles also. She has received recognition for becoming only the second woman ever to win a Grand Slam in doubles. In 1998, she paired with Mirjana Lucic to claim the Australia Open women's title and partnered with Jana Novotna to win the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. She was the first woman to win all four women's doubles Grand Slam events since namesake Martina Navratilova partnered with Pam Shriver in 1984 in 1984. In 1999 alone, Hingis won six doubles events, including the Australian Open, the Chase Championships and the Italian Open, pairing with Anna Kournikova. In the singles, "players who [want to] beat Martina have to be powerful like Davenport, Williams and others," said Testud, a No. 15 player from France. Otherwise, Testud said, the Swiss teenager's opponents will have to play a perfect game. "I really tried to be aggressive, make her run as much as possible, and serve and return well," Testud said. "But today (Hingis) was too good and she served pretty good. And I didn't serve as well as I was expecting." Second-ranked Davenport, who has beaten Hingis in straight sets the last four times they played, including in the Australian Open finals last month, did not participate in the Toray Pan Pacific. Venus and her sister Serena Williams, along with four other top 10 players, also passed on the event. The 27-year-old Testud, reaching the final of any first tier tournament for her first time, was a little shaky in the opening set and was broken at love in the sixth game. Testud came back with some good serves and sharp-shooting in the second set. She broke twice but was broken three times. Hingis converted four of eight break points, to two of four for Testud. Testud won $83,000 and was moved up to No. 10, her highest ranking ever. "I feel great. This title means a lot to me because it is my first of this new millennium," said Hingis. "My serves were like going everywhere. I have never missed by that far," Hingis said of her play in the second set. "At 5-5, I was very happy to break her right back and go up 6-5. "It's been stepping up. First in Sydney I was a semifinalist, then a finalist in Melbourne and now the victory. So hopefully I can keep it up that way," she said. Hingis said she will now have a short break before her next competition in Scottsdale in Arizona in three weeks. "I'm going back to Florida and take maybe a few days off, do something that I enjoy to do, maybe go to the beach, go to some places I haven't been to before and just relax," Hingis said. The 17th annual Toray Pan Pacific featured another rising star. American Alexandra Stevenson, the first woman to reach the Wimbledon semifinals as a qualifier, made it to the round of 16 players. Lilia Osterloh performed even better, reaching the quarterfinals. On her way, the 87th-ranked Osterloh beat second seed and No. 5 Pierce 6-2, 4-6, 6-2. The 21-year-old Osterloh, of Canal Winchester, Ohio, was a third-round loser in the qualifying series but was chosen a replacement to fill Davenport's spot after the 1998 Toray Pan Pacific champion withdrew because of an injured left hamstring.
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