Hingis’ depth, accuracy made the difference

HEAVE HO! World No 1 Martina Hingis of Switzerland throws balls to the crowd after defeating Monica Seles of the US in the French Oprn semifinal on Thursday. Hingis won 6-7 (2-7), 7-5, 6-4.

The incredible Martina Hingis continued her dominance over women’s tennis as she carved out her 37th consecutive victory to beat the third seed and former champion Monica Seles in three tight sets.

After losing the first set in a tie-breaker, the world’s No 1 player stayed close to Seles throughout the second with crunching ground shots from the back of the court and kept moving Seles around. Both players play attacking tennis from the baseline and rarely come to the net. On clay, that is very hard to do and the ground stroke has to be hit with a lot of pace and depth.As the points got longer, fitness seemed paramount. Seles seemed to be the fitter of the two and the fact that Hingis has not played that many three-setters, should have favoured the American. But, as the third set unfolded, Hingis’ depth and accuracy started to make the difference.After Hingis held her serve to go 5-3 up in the final set, Seles had to serve to stay in the match, which she did to force the top seed to serve out the match. Seles continued to pound the return of serves. Hingis scrambled at the back of the court but always managed to get the ball deep and to the corners. Nerves and mental toughness were tested to the limit and Hingis came through on both counts.

Keeping her cool even after losing the first match point, Hingis forced Seles into a corner and closed out the match on her second opportunity.A fine win by the 16-year-old which puts her in second consecutive Grand Slam final and should she win on Saturday, she will become the youngest winner of back-to-back Grand Slam events, a record held by Charlotte `Lottie’ Dodd in 1888.

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The most amazing thing about Hingis is that just before the French Open, she was sidelined for six weeks after falling off a horse and had to endure an arthroscopy surgery on her left knee. But when she reached Paris, she was both physically and mentally fit.

Her opponent in the final is the Croatian No 9 Iva Majoli who oulasted Amanda Coetzer in another tough three-set battle. After upsetting Graf in the quarters, Coetzer was more cautious in her play.

Graf herself had said after her loss that she thought the South African would not make the finals.

A great piece of news for India came in the mixed doubles as Mahesh Bhupathi and his Japanese partner Rika Hiraki reached the finals beating Cyril Sukova and Helena Sukova in two sets.