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by Prip Different players take a different approach to the year-end "break" and the first tournaments of the year, and today, Martina Hingis and Jennifer Capriati proved that the age-old prescription of hard work is indeed the best medicine. Melbourne Park had practically turned into the twilight zone for the day, as nothing could prepare the tennis world for the 6-1 6-1 drubbing Martina Hingis handed Venus Williams. Martina's chances of finally getting through against both sisters in succession in a tournament were the greatest they've ever been, and Martina knew it. She had watched Venus's match against Amanda Coetzer, and had personally made sure that Venus had as little preparation for the Aussie Open as possible, taking her out of the doubles in Sydney, where Venus neglected to enter the singles. Martina's plan was simple: just like yesterday, she would have to come out blasting, and take advantage before Venus managed to get grooved. Fortunately for her, that point of the match never came, Venus simply never booted up, and not only coughed up a 50% first serve percentage, but also threw in 6 double-faults. The real key came in Martina's own serve. In contrast to her previous match, Martina took some pace off the ball, and managed to get 78% of her first serves in. In even starker contrast to her previous match, Martina made only 8 unforced errors in the entire match, compared to 38 from Venus. Still sticking to her guns, Venus refused to attribute her shocking defeat to her lack of match preparation, and instead said that she would have preferred to work harder during the break. The only problem is that you can't play tennis and design clothes at the same time. As Martina Hingis advised her worthy opponent, "You can't both go to school and play tennis. You have to choose." Education is, of course, very important. The question is whether you can consider what Venus is doing as "education". And hence Martina will go into her fifth consecutive Australian Open final against a fifth different opponent. She had beaten Mary Pierce, Conchita Martinez and Amelie Mauresmo, fallen to Lindsay Davenport last year, and will look to make it 4 out of 5 against Jennifer Capriati. Jennifer had also worked hard during the break, and in fact, had been seen by Martina on the practice courts every day in Saddlebrook. Just like Martina, Jennifer had to beat a player her same age in her semifinal. Unlike Martina, though, there was never a fierce rivalry between Jennifer and Lindsay Davenport. In a rematch of last year's semifinal, Jennifer Capriati this time came out on top. Lindsay had been showing poor form throughout the tournament, and whether or not she could pull the rabbit out of the hat this time was questionable. Lindsay has many times before played lackluster tennis in the early rounds only to suddenly raise the level of her game in the semis, but the fact is that Jennifer Capriati is on fire. Displaying fitness like she never has before, and a focus and determination coming purely from inside, minus all the distractions and circus acts around her, Jennifer has finally broken through, after half a year of mediocre tennis. Jennifer's tactic was also to come out blasting, literally. Lindsay's serve, which is usually a major weapon, let her down today, and Lindsay managed to get only 58% of them in. It didn't help that Jennifer was putting so much pressure on her serve, and Lindsay didn't manage to get a single ace in the match. The unforced errors coming off her racquet were more like what one would expect from a Williams match, and Lindsay later indulged that the hot and humid weather had caused the balls to feel a lot lighter and "float" more. Shot after shot landed long, and Lindsay grew frustrated at her inability to control the ball. All credit to Jennifer, though, who continued to move well on court despite the torturous conditions. She played hard on the big points, and got the breaks to take the match 6-3 6-4. With both semifinal winners playing perhaps the best tennis of their respective careers, the final is sure to be one to watch, despite assumptions that Hingis should have another romp in the park. Unfortunately (but fortunately in some ways) for Martina, she won't be featured in both the singles and doubles finals here for a fifth straight year. She and Monica lost to Venus and Serena in their semifinal bout today, in a sort of grudge match for the sisters. Monica did a very dismal job of it all, playing badly from both the baseline and the net, and the Williamses actually had a 5-1 lead in the first set, before Martina and Monica evened it up at 5-all. Very notably, though, was that Venus and Serena were having target practice, using a small Swiss Miss as their target. Lucky for Martina, she was quick enough to avoid getting hit by the ball at all. With the doubles draw being another toughie (Williams incorporated will take on Lindsay Davenport and Corina Morariu in the final), Martina will be breathing a sigh of relief that she will get a day off between her match today and her final match instead of having to stress herself out on the doubles court. However disappointing it is to lose before reaching the final, she can take some comfort in knowing that she's lost to a team that had a 15-0 record last year and with a partner previously ranked outside the top 100. In the men's night match, Andre Agassi and Patrick Rafter treated the spectators to another big five-setter. Patrick played an absolutely fantastic match, getting a total of 22 aces in against the best returner in tennis. The fact that he only got 63% of his first serves in didn't matter: he was slamming his second serves in almost as well as his first, and got an unbelievable number of second serve aces in. Unlike his previous matches, Rafter did an excellent job at net, and combined with breathtaking service returns, managed to get 78 winners compared to only 55 from Agassi. On a roll in the second set, Pat actually out-rallied Andre in the baseline exchanges. After losing the first set 5-7, Pat absolutely stunned the sixth seed to go up 2 sets to 1. With the way things were going, it looked like the Aussie crowd would finally have a real reason to cheer in the final. Unfortunately, cramps would slowly start to affect Pat's game, and the Aussie was left practically immobile on the court. Already in obvious discomfort at the end of the third set, Pat had the trainer come out for a quick massage, but it didn't help enough, and in a tragic ending, Pat had to concede the match 6-2 6-3 in the final sets, to Andre who did well to keep his game together. The good news is that Pat hasn't confirmed his retirement. Instead, he will take a break, albeit a long one, at the end of this season and will probably come back to grace Melbourne's tennis courts if all goes well. Most of the tennis world certainly hopes so, and if Pat can come back to finally take this title, it will make up for the unfortunate circumstances this year. In junior play, Sasa (pronounced Sasha for those who are wondering) Tuksar got his revenge with Ivan Stelko against top seeds Janco Tipsarevic and Darko Madarovski. In a match with history older than any of the boys on court, the top seeds had actually served for the match at 5-2 and held a total of 3 match points, but the Croats somehow pulled through those points, and chipped away at the lead. The real feat came in that neither Croat was talking to each other. Sasa had been aced (as did Ivan) in the previous game, and then went on to double-fault on break point to get the team to 2-5, but instead of encouraging his partner, Ivan had acted deplorably and yelled at his partner, as he had every time Sasa made a mistake. In fact, he must have very high stress levels, by the looks on his face every time he or his partner missed a point. In any case, the Croats eventually came out 8-6 in the final set, to the disbelief of Janco and Darko. With both players acting up on court, it was amazing that neither got code violations for either ball abuse or for arguing with the umpire. On a lighter note, by the time the match was over, the Croats were supposed to be checking in for their flight home. Feeling a surge of confidence, Sasa voted that they stay and take a chance at the title, but Stelko Sr. was ready to go home. The verdict: travel plans can be put on hold. The Aussie Open junior doubles title is in sight. In the girls' draw, second seed Marion Bartolli fell in straight sets to Hsieh Su-Wei, hampered by the humid weather and cramps in her right thigh. |