Martina Hingis: Don't write her off just as yet

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Nov 23, 1998

1998 SEASON END RANKINGS

DAVENPORT, Lindsay (USA) 5654 points
HINGIS, Martina (SUI) 5366
NOVOTNA, Jana (CZE) 3734
SANCHEZ-VICARIO, Arantxa (ESP) 3417
WILLIAMS, Venus (USA) 3262
SELES, Monica (USA) 3226
PIERCE, Mary (FRA) 2414
MARTINEZ, Conchita (ESP) 2331
GRAF, Steffi (GER) 2261
TAUZIAT, Nathalie (FRA) 2259
SCHNYDER, Patty (SUI) 2256
VAN ROOST, Dominique (BEL) 2073
KOURNIKOVA, Anna (RUS) 1971
TESTUD, Sandrine (FRA) 1898
SPIRLEA, Irina (ROM) 1830
ZVEREVA, Natasha (BLR) 1770
COETZER, Amanda (RSA) 1752
SUGIYAMA, Ai (JAP) 1398
FARINA, Silvia (ITA) 1389
WILLIAMS, Serena (USA) 1301

The 1998 tennis season is now brought to a close, at least for the women, as the men have another week to wrap up their season-ending events. It's been an exciting round up of events in the past few weeks, of course, the big story in recent weeks has been the AMAZING comeback of Steffi Graf, who went unbeaten in a 12 match streak. In this streak, she won two back-to-back titles and reached the semis of the prestigious Chase Championships. She also became the first person in women's tennis to defeat the Top 3 players in a span of four days. And who could forget perhaps one of the most memorable matches of the past two years - the Steffi/Monica encounter, which displayed some (surprisingly) excellent tennis, considering both are just on their comeback trails.
However, the Chase Championships belonged to another former world #1 in Martina Hingis. Undoubtedly, she had had a disappointing season. That is, by her standards alone. It wouldn't normally be said that someone who won 5 titles this year, won a Grand Slam, reached the final in another, the semis at the two others, lost 13 matches collectively and finished the season ranked #2 had a disappointing season, but all this pales in comparison to Martina Hingis of 1997. In comparison, Hingis was on the brink of winning the "Grand Slam", as she won three majors and reached the final of the other. Also this time last year, she was ahead of the #2 player by 2000 ranking points - now she has to make do with being the #2 player.
I have to admit that as the season wore on, I believed that Martina Hingis would become a wash-up on the tennis tour. Something like that of a Jim Courier - where players would know exactly how to get the better of a great tennis player. I really believed it was possible that this time next year, Martina Hingis could be out of the Top 5. It is true, however, that more and more players know what to do against Martina Hingis to give her trouble. As the season progressed, it showed that more and more players were able to exploit her weaknesses, especially in her second serve. And as the season progressed, she also became more immobile as she was quite reluctant to put in the physical training. Her vulnerability to power players was evident as she lost to Lindsay Davenport three times, Venus Williams and Monica Seles twice each and Mary Pierce, Anna Kournikova and Dominique van Roost once each.

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