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Winning Ways at the Wimbledon Warm-ups

© Michael Cecilio

STOP PRESS!!!! World #1 Martina Hingis crushed in the first round of Wimbledon!!!
Never in a million years would anyone have dreamed of what was to become Martina Hingis's fate at Wimbledon 1999. In an absolutely humiliating affair, top seed and world #1 Martina Hingis was ousted from the prestigious major in the first round by one of the most talented up-and-comers of the WTA tour - Jelena Dokic of Australia.

As we watched Martina stare into space during changeovers, looking perplexed and panic stricken, we could not help but find remnants of that devastating French Open final loss still lurking in the forefront of Hingis's psyche. Not only was Martina Hingis defeated in the first round of a Grand Slam event, but she was absolutely torn to shreds by the Serbian born 131st ranked qualifier from Sydney, Australia (my home town!) 6-2 6-0. Based on this performance, a casual observer of tennis would have been forgiven for believing Dokic was the experienced campaigner while Hingis was the rookie in her first season. Dokic not only won the power game, but she also won the mental battle. She ran Hingis from corner to corner, consistently overpowered her with aggressive groundstrokes, forced a lot of errors to come off Hingis's racquet, and even played Hingis in her own game of deft drop shots. Mentally, Dokic was unflappable as she never let Hingis back into the match, frequently converted on most of her opportunities and never showed signs of tightness in closing out the rout.

Consequently, Hingis self-destructed on Court 1. Her consistent baseline game deserted her midway through the first set, and errors seemed to fly freely from both wings. Uncharacteristically, she did not take her opportunities when they approached. This marks the first time Martina Hingis has lost before the semi finals of a Grand Slam event since her fourth round defeat at 1996 Wimbledon to Steffi Graf. It also marks the first time she has lost in the first round of a Grand Slam since 1995 Wimbledon, once again to Steffi Graf. Does anyone sense some sort of irony here?!?!?!

While we never doubted Dokic's ability to play outstanding tennis on the grandest of occasions, we are left to wonder just what happened to Martina Hingis during her 55 minute ordeal, and what this could mean for her in the mid-to-long term. There is no doubt that she has been tormented with on-and-off court woes for the past month, following her just as perplexing loss in the French Open final against Steffi Graf. She riled the crowd and frequently received boos from the spectators who wanted nothing but to see the demise of the world #1. Hingis's demise is just what they got, but no one expected it to run over into her Wimbledon campaign, a campaign which has been both embarrassingly and sorrowfully cut short. The criticism she received from the press, the players and the public following her French Open loss was all just too much for Hingis and nothing she could do - not even withdrawing from the public eye to the Czech Republic for a week - could halt the tide of bad fortune which would befall her this month.

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