EXCLUSIVE:
MARTINA RELIVES HER ROLAND GARROS IMPLOSION

Hingis describes about failed French final, admits "I was crazy"

By Matthew Cronin
tennisreporters.net

Thursday, May 25 – Not a soul outside of her now deposed coach and mother Melanie had ever seen her that desperate, so in the '99 French Open final when Martina Hingis imploded louder than a homecoming queen being dissed publicly by her king, much of tennis world lost their love for her cute and savage smile.

The endearing yet cocky Swiss screamed, pouted and all but quit in the third set and then sobbed uncontrollably in a 4-6, 7-5, 6-2 startling loss to Steffi Graf that changed her career forever. Hingis couldn't win Roland Garros then, nor did she in '97, '98 or '00, and is certainly not the favorite this year.

LOVE TENNIS OR HATE IT?
Murder on court has not been her forte as of late, either. But what exactly is the Slovak native's future? Whipping girl for tennis' big bombers? Perennial finalist? A resourceful player who retools her game (like using her volleying expertise more frequently) and who will snare another five Slam crowns? Or someone who after seven years on tour and a lifetime of digging out balls, is growing slightly bored? "Some days I love tennis and some days I hate it," said Hingis. "C'mon, do you love your job everyday? Hate is too strong. It's not like every day I feel like I want to go out there and hit balls. You always have to find positive sides to what you do and I'm very gifted and fortunate to do my job at a high level. If you look at me on the street you wouldn't think I'm a pro player. Look at the youngsters -- taller, bigger and stronger than me. But I'm like, OK, but you don't know how to play this game yet."

Despite her slump at the Slams, the 5-foot-7 Hingis is still a near master of her trade, but applying her keen intellect to a sport that is quickly filling up with 6-foot plus cannonballers is growing increasingly difficult. For example, Hingis may have an IQ at least five times of that as Jennifer Capriati, but in two finals this year (the Australian Open and Charleston), Capriati's clean, powerful groundies ripped holes in the Swiss' theories. "Sometimes I do the same things against power players, sometimes I mix it up more," Hingis said. "Sometimes you already know where they are going to hit. It's like a chess game. They go out wide to forehand, I hit down the middle and I know its going down the line but I can't get there. Sometimes [their winners] are a given… But I'm only 20. I've done so much that people already think I'm 25. Sometimes I have a hard time. I have a different body. Maybe I'm more mature and experienced and know what to do, but sometimes now I feel I don't know anything. I feel like a beginner."

What's not yet ground in stone is that Hingis is completely done as dominant player. A very prideful woman who even displayed a temper when losing card games as a kid to senior citizens at a Swiss club, Hingis defends her accomplishments with the verve of lioness. She refuses to concede that she is slipping, despite the fact that she hasn't won a Slam title in more than two years.

That's why she didn't show up at the WTA Awards Banquet at Indian Wells this year to receive the Aces Award, which honors the player who contributes the most time to media and sponsors. There was no way in hell that Hingis was going to sit in the audience and watch arch-rival Venus Williams receive the Player of the Year award (Venus didn't show up anyway). "She only played five months of the year and that doesn't make her the player of the year as maybe it doesn't make me the Player of the Year because I didn't win a Grand Slam," said a flustered Hingis. "It's two-sided. She won two Slams and also won the Olympics, which didn't count because it's like an exhibition, and I won the Chase Championships. I won nine titles overall and I was 300 points ahead of her, so…."

Hingis' intense rivalry with the Williams family is what drives interest in women's tennis these days. Nearly all of her on-court bouts against Venus have been high drama, as has her on-going war of words with the family. She obviously does not like Richard Williams and has often lashed out as his opinions, including his recent statement that his daughters are subjected to racism. "It's total nonsense to me," she said. "I definitely don't feel like that there is any racism on the Tour. It's a very international sport. I even would say because they may be black they have a lot of other advantages, where they can always say it's racism. It's not the case at all. I don't care who's on the other side, I treat them with respect. It's a professional sport, and they're good for the sport. I like the girls. Sometimes he has said things which are not true."

Hingis added she has a very professional relationship with the sisters. " In Australia, they were next to me in the locker room. We have to be there together so you definitely don't kill each other before you go out there," she laughed. "I leave that up to boxing when they go in the ring and boom…"

I'M NO. 1
In the ring with white lines, Hingis has allowed Venus to overtake her, losing to her at '00 Wimbledon and the '00 U.S. Open when she failed to step it up on big points and Williams played gutsy at closing time. "I was waiting for her to give into me instead of taking the opportunities myself," Hingis said. "In a way I didn't have the belief or I was overconfident at the same time. It was kind of twisted. I came out as a winner before and I felt like I was the better player but it in the past she would choke a bit, she would double fault, but now she's improved. But I have too."

This year, Hingis whipped Venus 6-1, 6-1 in Australian semis but then fell to her in a marathon semi at the Ericsson. Despite playing only sporadically, both Venus and Serena have stated that they want Hingis' No. 1 ranking. "They've been saying that for the last four years. I won't give it up just like that," said Hingis, who has won three titles this year. "You still have to beat me and play more tournaments. It's easy just to be fresh and in great conditions like five, six times a year. Throughout the year, that's tennis. It's an eleven-month season."

It's one thing to lose a classic to a never-say-die Sister W, it's another to lose a Slam final to your sparring partner from the Saddlebrook Academy. Hingis was stunned that she couldn't pick apart Capriati Down Under and believes that she is the superior player. "Oh god. I know," she said. "I was too tired from playing too much singles and [tough] doubles at Hopman Cup and Sydney. Then to beat the Williams back to back. Mentally I was too settled down."

Of all her accomplishments, perhaps Hingis' most impressive is that at the tender age of 20, she is already fourth on the all-time list at weeks at No. 1 behind Graf, Navratilova and Evert. In mid-May, Hingis had been No. 1 for 191 weeks, about 17 months shy of Chrissie. Hingis feels "it's possible" she can pass Evert, but admits it would be "almost impossible" to catch Steffi and Martina. What should also be within an arm's length is another half dozen Slam titles or so, but at this point, Hingis is downplaying the importance of the Golden Rule of Pro Tennis -- Slam performances take precedence over everything else. Hingis offers a revisionist history. "You always wish you have the Slams but I think the Slams are a little bit overrated," she claimed. "There are other great tournaments. It's not like I lost first round in each one - I've had two finals, two semis and a quarter [in her last five majors]. It's not like I'm disappointed -- I just didn't win ….I think people remember more who has been No. 1 than how many Grand Slams have you won. I won Grand Slams in the past. Hopefully things will turn around this year." In order to conserve energy for singles, Hingis has at least temporarily bagged doubles and says she needs to work harder on her conditioning and diet. It's also pretty obvious that if she doesn't get more pop on her second serve and forehand, she is going to continue to have a very tough time against elite players. "A lot of its mental with my serve," said Hingis, who has been known to spin in more than her fair share of 70 mph softballs. "It's concentration. The better you feel with yourself, with your all-around game, the better my serve gets. I have more confidence in it again. To have more power from the groundstrokes, I have to have more power in my legs so I have that punch. I've been working on that in practice."

SPLIT WITH MOM AND RELIVING THE NIGHTMARE
In the past couple months, Hingis has had to tread the treacherous path in her personal life, testifying in Miami at the trial of her now convicted stalker Dubavko Rajcevic and then agreeing to end her coach-pupil relationship with her mother. Two years ago, Hingis took a brief break from her mother's coaching after her French Open debacle.

Two weeks later -- with her mother, Melanie Molitor at home -- Hingis was stunned in the first round of Wimbledon by Jelena Dokic.

In '99, Mom came back quickly. This time, Molitor may not come back at all and is starting to work on a deal to coach juniors. According to Swiss reports, Molitor said the separation came after Hingis lost to Venus at the Ericsson. "There was tension between the professional and the personal relationships," the Swiss paper Tages-Anzeiger quoted her as saying. "The separation was at that time the only possibility to avoid damaging the personal relationship. Whenever three people as different as Martina, Mario [Melanie's boyfriend] and I live together, everyone always has to be ready to make compromises. However, all the compromises got too big for everybody. We didn't want that." Molitor said her personal relationship with her Martina remains "intact. And there hasn't been a fight. Martina phones often…But it will never again be like it was before. But perhaps we will work together in another way. Martina is no longer 18, but nearly 21. You must not tell her everything. She's an adult."

Hingis values her independence and says she is confident that she can make it on her own for a while. She is currently hitting with David Taylor until the French Open and he may become her full-time coach. "It's a bit difficult because I have to organize a lot of things myself and the phone keeps ringing but I'm not doing too badly," she said. But how will Hingis fare in Paris, where two years ago she might have dug her own grave in Centre Court if it had not been for her mother's supportive shoulder?

Exactly how did Martina transform herself into French Tennis Public Enemy No. 1 in the Graf match? Let us count the ways. Hingis played ethereal tennis in the first set, but ahead at 2-0 in the second set, she melted down, becoming unglued in an inconsequential point on a questionable call. Hingis was so infuriated that she then took the most infamous stroll in modern tennis history, walking over to Grafõs baseline to circle the mark, spurring the crowd into a jeering rage and earning herself an automatic point penalty. Why melt down when the match was in hand? Hingis hates discussing the match and especially her killer crossover walk, but nonetheless confided that she was so emotionally warped at the time that she wasn't thinking about what the crowd's reaction would be. "Things happen," said the typically unapologetic Hingis. "Once you do it, you don't think. I knew the ball was in and I saw Steffi's face and she knew it, too. They wouldn't look for the mark and it was ridiculous."

In the match's final game, Hingis felt the full wrath of France. On the first match point, she stunned Graf by serving underhanded. Hingis missed an underhanded serve on the second match point and then argued, complaining that the umpire spoke as she was tossing the ball. The angry crowd taunted her again and Hingis missed an easy backhand to lose the match and fled weeping, only to return on the arm of Melanie, who needed three minutes to calm her daughter down as the Hingis was heaving and choking on sobs that all 16,000 fans could hear.

Why was Hingis' so emotionally invested in the match? She had lost to Iva Majoli in the '97 French final and didn't even whimper, nor did she kick her racket bag when she was beat up by Monica Seles in the '98 semis. It's fairly simple and yet complex: First, Hingis had never faced a legend in a Slam final before. Second, five-time French champ Graf had reached the mythical proportions in '99, coming back from a serious knee injury but was hinting at retirement. Graf was the one player who Hingis could never figure out, a player fans swooned over, and whose records appeared untouchable. Hingis had always been the player that people tagged as the best of her peer group. In the pros, she lost that status and she knew that the Roland Garros final was possibly her last opportunity to show the world that she was better than Graf. She was right -- it would be her final match against the German. "I always had trouble with Steffi," said Hingis. "I never liked playing her. She never gave you a free point. She was always beating me and I then I had it there. I was like, "C'mon this is the French Open!" I lost too much energy in the first set. I put too much pressure on myself."

What of Roland Garros 2001? Will Hingis be able to put on a top-notch performance on Centre Court, will she roll her eyes at the crowd or will she walk meekly away like she did in her loss to Pierce last year.

"That's the past," Hingis said. " I've learned from it and the future is ahead. Winning is more up to me most of time, whether I feel fine with myself and if the motivation is there. I'm pretty motivated."