Hingis career hits crisis as she comes up short again
Timidity is a deadly sin in sport and so though Saturday's Australian Open women's final will be remembered for yet another Jennifer Capriati comeback, it was clearly a match that Martina Hingis threw away. She led 5-1 in the first set and 4-0 in the second, then let slip four match points before losing 4-6, 7-6, 6-2.
"I was passive, hoping she would make mistakes on those match points," said a remarkably candid and pleasingly mature Hingis, who added: "I just wasn't up to it, mentally or physically."
The sheer drama of the encounter, with both women barely able to put one foot in front of another in the final set, so intense was the heat, masked the generally poor quality of the tennis. Capriati arrived in Melbourne with hip problems and needed heavy strapping on the upper parts of both thighs throughout the fortnight, although she took the tape off when 3-0 down in the second set, mainly because it was so hot.
Afterwards she made light of the injuries but she was never at her best, particularly compared with last year's final when she pounded Hingis to defeat in two short sets. But then last year the 25-year-old American was in the region of a stone lighter, moving much more quickly, and hitting the ball harder. Her three-set semi-final against Belgium's Kim Clijsters had clearly taken a toll, with Capriati looking nothing like the world No1 for the majority of the match.
But she is a fighter, and despite losing the first set 6-1 she had the courage to go for her shots in moments of high anxiety, as she had in last year's French Open final against Clijsters when Capriati won 12-10 in the third set. This was her third grand-slam final, and her third win. For Hingis it was her 12th major final, and her seventh defeat, including three successive losses in the Australian Open final.
On this occasion everything appeared to have conspired in the Swiss woman's favour. Two of the game's big hitters, Lindsay Davenport and Serena Williams, missed the tournament because of injury, and Venus Williams was beaten in the quarter-finals by Seles. Add Capriati's injury problems and it seemed Hingis was poised to win her first major title since here in 1999.
This latest defeat will be a body blow. The very fact that Hingis was totally unable to take the initiative on the match points or, more importantly, hold her serve when 4-0 up in the second set, was testimony to the mental scarring that Capriati, the Williams sisters and Davenport have inflicted on her over the past three years.
"It was a big step from last year when I lost to Jennifer in straight sets," argued Hingis, as much with herself as those listening. But it was a hollow argument.
It is possible that last year's right ankle-ligament operation had left Hingis short of match competition, although she won the warm-up event in Sydney, and that her women's doubles title, won on Friday with Anna Kournikova, took the edge off her physically. But if Hingis found it impossible to add to her five grand-slam titles (three Australian, one French and one Wimbledon) when the odds were so heavily in her favour, it is hard to make out a case for her ever doing so.
Hingis retains the capacity to cut down lesser opposition by the sheer brilliance of her positional play and variety of shots, and in this respect she is far more interesting to watch than the Williams sisters or Capriati. But power undoes her, either through sheer velocity or because, as against Capriati, she is run to a standstill.
Her one hope is that she stays fitter than her main rivals, and that her desire is greater. "I'm a competitor, so I don't want to give anything up," she replied when asked about the doubles.
But she will perhaps look back with most frustration to her inability to close out the match from the point when Capriati blew up and looked in danger of complete collapse at 3-0 down in the second set. The American demanded that the umpire remove a line judge over a call that went against her and raged at her father Stefano in the crowd.
"There were a few moments when I got really agitated," she admitted. "It was tough and you have nobody else to take it out on except the ones you love."
The resurrection and restoration of Capriati's career is well documented and she relished her third slam victory. "I'm not looking for a place in history. I'm just looking for titles." So is Hingis, increasingly forlornly.