Martina Vies for Two Titles...and Some Special Awards
by Christopher Gerby
Martina Hingis vs. Serena Williams
Singles: Final
Centre Court
Holding a three match winning streak over Martina Hingis, # 4 seed
Serena Williams went into Sunday's final as the favorite over # 1 seed
Martina Hingis, rankings be damned. Yours truly even put a Canadian
buck on Williams in the press room pool. (Pick the winner and the
total number of games -- whoever's closest gets the entire pot, which
turned out to be $34. I opted for Serena in 20.) After a few games
of monster hitting from the 18-year-old American, it looked as if the
match would be more lopsided than any of us had bargained for. Williams
broke Hingis with a big backhand winner down the line and uncorked a
174 km/h (108 miles per hour) ace to end Game 2. Serena thumped two
forehand winners in a row to complete a break for 3-0, swatting the
Hingis serve away like it was nothing. Hingis finally got things
going in the right direction in Game 4, three times getting to break
point. However, Williams has a knack for coming up with a big serve
when she needs one -- the break points were saved by two aces and a
first serve which Hingis returned long. Serena finally got to game
point and launched an ace for 4-0.
Looking more than a little overwhelemed by the powerful shots coming
at her, Hingis was broken at love for 0-5. She got a break point in
the sixth game, but Williams blasted a service winner and pumped
her fist. Two points later, Serena's fifth ace of the day ended the
6-0 set after just 21 minutes. Hingis later likened the experience
to being on a race track. "It was like Formula One; it was all the
shots went zooming by me," she said, demonstrating with her hands.
Williams continued the rout by breaking to open Set 2. Martina Hingis
is a crafty competitor, though, and she began moving the ball around
to good effect. When Williams pushed a backhand wide on break point,
Hingis raised her arms in victory and got a big round of applause.
Then she got a game point on her serve for the first time all
afternoon and converted it for a 2-1 lead. Williams held at love
for 2-2, but Hingis kept the ball deep in her second consecutive hold
to 3-2. Some errors were starting to fly off the Williams racquet,
but she was still serving bullets -- three aces in Game 6 evened the
set at 3 games piece.
Having put that ugly first set behind her, Hingis kept up her strong
play in Game 7, holding serve with a delicate half-volley winner.
The following game went to 30-30 and Williams self-destructed, double
faulting and sending a forehand long. Hingis finally had a significant
lead, going up 5-3 in the second set. Serena's game, meanwhile, was
in freefall. She lost the set's final game at 15, a forehand error
ending it 6 games to 3. Williams then called for the trainer to come
out and treat her left foot. What at first looked like perhaps a
bit of momentum-stopping gamesmanship turned out to be a case of
sesamoiditis. For those of us without a background in sports
medicine, that's the inflammation of a small bone on the base of the
foot. "I got it last night against Arantxa," Williams would explain
after the match. "Of all the pains, you know, you put up with a foot
injury. I'd rather say I have a knee injury or something like that.
I've never had this before."
Williams went back out to start the third set, but clearly was not
herself. She made four unforced errors in dropping her serve, then
just started randomly slapping the ball around during Martina's love
hold for 2-0. Game 3 was more of the same, with Williams unable to
push off her left foot and control her shots. After being broken at
15 on a backhand error, Williams slowly walked to the net. Serena,
Martina, and chair umpire Anne Lasserre-Ulrich had a very awkward
looking little discussion before Lassere-Ulrich finally announced
that Williams was retiring. After the players shook hands and parted
ways, Martina looked to the crowd and shrugged her shoulders. It was
far from the way she wanted to accomplish it, but Hingis nonetheless
leaves with a successful defense of her du Maurier Open crown 0-6,
6-3, 3-0. (Oh, and in case you're wondering, a guy from L'Equipe was
lucky enough to win the pool, nailing it
right on the head -- Hingis in 18 games.)
Serena Williams spoke some French in her post-match speech before
giggling as she reverted back to her native tongue. "I'm on one leg
here, but I really appreciate all the support," she told the crowd.
"I love it here in Montreal." Martina Hingis managed to one-up her
opponent by delivering an entire speech in smooth, confident French.
Hingis insists she only speaks French "if I need to," but she did a
fine job here, thanking her entourage, praising the city of Montreal,
and honoring the sponsors (especially du Maurier, which has been
forced to end its association with the tournament after this year).
In the post-match press conference, Williams said she doesn't expect
the injury to keep her out of the U.S. Open. She did, however, admit
to being in a fair amount of pain. "I could feel it throbbing just
sitting down. I figure if I'm walking it's going to be worse. So
does it hurt a lot? Yeah, it hurts a lot." Taking her turn at the
podium (which she took a nasty little slip on Saturday afternoon),
Hingis summarized the unusual afternoon. "It was just like two
different matches in a way. The first set, I barely had a chance and
I also wasn't, like, making her play. At least in the second I just
made her play a little bit more, you know, started reading whether
she was going down the line or cross-court and also the serve." Asked
if she had rather finish out the match than win it at 3-0, a grinning
Hingis said, "I don't care. I have to play another doubles now and
also I want to go home tonight."
Halard-Decugis/Sugiyama vs. Hingis/Tauziat
Doubles: Final
Centre Court
For the second day in a row, Hingis had approximately an hour of
rest before returning to Centre Court for a doubles match. This time
there was a title at stake, as Hingis and partner Nathalie Tauziat
met Julie Halard-Decugis and Ai Sugiyama. They used to say that the
best doubles team in the world was "John McEnroe and anybody." In
the women's game right now, the best pairing very well may be Martina
Hingis and anybody. So even though Halard-Decugis/Sugiyama were
seeded first and Hingis/Tauziat seeded second, the smart money (not
literally this time) was on the Swiss Miss to take home her second
trophy of the day.
Hingis and Tauziat didn't get off to a good start here, each netting
volleys to fall behind 0-30 in the opening game. A pair of winning
volleys from Sugiyama closed out a break of Hingis for 1-0.
Halard-Decugis held at love for 2-zip, but then Hingis and Tauziat
started making their volleys and got to 2-2. After Halard-Decugis
hit an overhead smash in the fifth game, the ball jumped up and caught the
brim of Tauziat's cap. Julie briefly held up her hand in apology,
but did so with her back turned to Nathalie. The bad blood between
those two got boiling when Tauziat wrote a no-holds-barred book about
life on the WTA Tour. She managed to anger her peers so much that
Halard-Decugis said she would refuse to play in the Olympics if
Tauziat was named to the French team. Halard-Decugis won that
battle, but Tauziat (and Hingis) won Game 5 for a 3-2 lead. An
exchange of holds took the set to 4-3. Sugiyama was then broken at
love, with Tauziat putting away an overhead for a 5-3 lead. Hingis
took care of matters from there, serving out the 6-3 set at 15.
Tauziat was the first player to drop serve in the second set, sending
a forehand wide on break point to give the top seeds a 3-1 lead.
Halard-Decugis pumped her fist after a nifty forehand winner in a
hold for 4-1. Hingis, Sugiyama, and Tauziat all held at 15, so the
French/Japanese tandem had a 5-3 lead. Hingis and Tauziat valiantly
tried to break back, Nathalie coming over her backhand to whack a
pair of nice return winners. However, Tauziat lost the first break
point with a wayward volley and Halard-Decugis saved the second with
an ace. Two points later, a Hingis return of an Halard-Decugis first
serve landed long of the baseline, wrapping up a 6-3 second set.
Halard-Decugis and Sugiyama each tossed up winning topspin lobs in
a well-played break of Hingis. But the French/Swiss pairing struck
right back, breaking Halard-Decugis for 1-1. The set went with serve
to 3-3, both French players scoring an ace along the way and Halard-Decugis
fighting off the only break point. Tauziat had struggled in Game 6,
but got a pat on the back from Hingis midway through Game 7, a love
hold for 4-3. Halard-Decugis poached her way to a winning volley,
ending a Sugiyama hold for 4-4. While the singles final had ended in
a bittersweet anti-climax, the excitement was building as the doubles
final closed in on its conclusion.
Hingis showed off her remarkable hands with a winning drop volley,
closing out a hold for 5-4. Two winning Tauziat volleys and a
winning Hingis return brought up double match point against the
Halard-Decugis serve. However, Julie put up an effective lob for
30-40 and Ai got her team to deuce with a forceful backhand volley.
Sugiyama excitedly pumped her fist, but Tauziat immediately earned
a third match point by whipping a backhand return. Halard-Decugis
could no longer prolong the inveitable -- she sent a forehand pass
wide to finish the 6-3, 3-6, 6-4 thriller. Not all that surprisingly,
Halard-Decugis and Tauziat made no attempt to shake each other's
hands at the end of the match. Tauziat instead engaged her young
doubles partner in a warm embrace.
Julie Halard-Decugis and Nathalie Tauziat gave their post-match speeches in French,
of course. Julie even dragged her Japanese partner up to the microphone
for an attempt of her own, but "bonjour" and "merci beaucoup" was all
an embarrassed Ai Sugiyama could come up with. The one English
language speech was turned in by Martina Hingis, but the singles/doubles
champion kept it brief, saying "I think I did enough talking already this afternoon."
She did, however, take the time to thank Tauziat, calling her "a
great champion" whom she has "learned a lot from." Three of us then
secured a brief post-match interview with the winners. They confirmed
to me that they'll be going back to their regular doubles partners
(Alexandra Fusai for Tauziat; Mary Pierce for Hingis) at the U.S.
Open. I asked if they might be getting back together for a few of
the fall indoor tournaments and they seemed open to the idea. "Maybe,
we'll see. I'll have to talk to Mary," said Hingis. "I actually
don't know if she's going to play the U.S. Open. I hope she does."
Tauziat chimed in: "We have to speak with our partners... Alexandra
is not playing indoors because her singles ranking is down. I don't
know what she's going to do. If we are free, then yes." Martina
and Nathalie have the 2000 du Maurier Open doubles title...but will
they win any of my all important, tournament-summarizing honors?
Chris G's 2000 du Maurier Open Awards
MATCH OF THE WEEK: The resilient veteran trying to fend off the
talented young challenger is a story older than tennis itself. Sabine
Appelmans vs. Jelena Dokic on Monday was a great example. The
left-handed Belgian may want to reconsider her retirement plans after
gutting out a 6-7, 6-4, 7-6 win over the Aussie phenom. Other matches
may have featured better play or greater atmosphere, but none could
top this one for sustained drama. Runner-up: Martina Hingis and
Sandrine Testud slugging it out for three sets in the quarterfinals.
UPSET OF THE WEEK: Magdalena Maleeva's 4-3 win over an
injured Lindsay Davenport doesn't count, but who would have predicted
Maleeva's 6-3, 6-2 drubbing of Amanda Coetzer in the previous
round? A real feather in the cap of the charismatic Bulgarian, who
always seems to fare well in Canada. "I could not have expected to
play any better," she said of the surprising second round win.
HYPE OF THE WEEK: Nothing pleases the Montreal fans more than
players speaking French. Alas, the brutal truth is that Serena
Williams has a very limited command of the language and Arantxa
Sanchez-Vicario has never been close to fluent. It was nice to see
them making the effort to parler en fracais, but Martina Hingis
made them both look like amateurs in her trophy ceremony speech.
Runner-up: the Williams vs. Kournikova match, a much-ballyhooed but
ultimately one-sided dud.
COMEBACK OF THE WEEK: A few armchair quarterbacks in the
press box felt the Jennifer Capriati vs. Virginia Ruano-Pascual
match was over when the Spaniard opened up a 4-1 lead in the final set.
However, JenCap looked very determined as she stormed all the way
back, winning the last five games and earning a spot in the third
round.
SHOT OF THE WEEK: Few moments in tennis can match the one
where a player makes a good drop shot only to have her opponent
scramble in and send back a spectacular winner. Martina Hingis
turned in a few textbook examples this week, burning Nadejda Petrova
and Sandrine Testud with her catlike quickness and uncanny racquet
control.
PERFORMANCE OF THE WEEK: Any of the four dominant wins
Serena Williams posted this week would qualify, but Serena's 6-0, 6-1 mugging
of Amy Frazier was the best of the bunch. After slamming
thunderbolt serves and groundstrokes all over Centre Court for 50
dominant minutes, even the hard-to-please Williams was content.
"You should mark this date, because I'll probably never say this
again, but I'm satisfied with the way I played."
CHOKE OF THE WEEK: I didn't see any players really throw
away a big lead this week, so the best example of choking I can think
of was committed by Vanessa Webb. Under pressure to do well
on her home soil, Webb missed virtually every important volley in her
first round loss to Virginia Ruano-Pascual.
FAN OF THE WEEK: Making a late run at this award was the
woman who kept crying out Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario's name with all the
pleading urgency one would usually reserve for shouting "I'm trapped
in the well!" However, it's hard to top the young man who chanted
"Schuber! Schuber!" to inspire the Barbara Schett/Anke Huber
doubles team.
BEST INTERVIEWEE: She's as arrogant as the day is long, but at
least Serena Williams is arrogant in a playful, funny,
forthcoming way. Her wit and willingness to talk about herself
(sometimes in the third person) made the loquacious teen a reporter's
dream. Runner-up: an affable, maturing Martina Hingis.
WORST INTERVIEWEE: As for the other kind of arrogant... Sour
and guarded, Anna Kournikova seems to regard her post-match interviews
as unwelcome, unpleasant chores. After
a couple rounds of listening to her stock answers and outright
stonewalling, the feeling was mutual.
STAR OF THE FUTURE: Coming through the qualifying in impressive
fashion, Justine Henin went ahead to win a three-set thriller
over Asa Carlsson and came within a game of ousting Lindsay Davenport.
The aggressive young Belgian is unquestionably one to watch.
Runner-up: Russian teenager Nadejda Petrova also qualified and
flashed a powerful forehand.
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The views expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect those of this magazine.
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Last updated 26 September 2015
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