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A Tribute To A Living Legend - Page 7

© Michael Cecilio

She did seem to be well on her way to another summer dream when she won in Stanford, crushing Venus Williams in the final. But it was that same upstart who upset her in San Diego the following week. Venus seemed to learn a few lessons from her previous defeat to Davenport and came out surprising Lindsay by hitting her forehand with a lot more depth and power. On the same token, Lindsay was never into the match as she tried to dominate with her power game, but came out hitting a lot of unforced errors, losing for only the second time in ten matches played against Venus.

However, the story of San Diego belonged to Martina Hingis. Of course, San Diego was Martina's first tournament since her crushing defeat at the French Open and her embarassing display at Wimbledon a couple of months ago. Everybody in the tennis world was intrigued to see just how she would react to those performances in what proved to be the most forgettable month of Martina Hingis's career. Her answer to the tennis world? Back with a vengeance, Martina says. This time, she does most of her talking with her racquet, a welcome relief to the petulance she has displayed in her career. She definitely looked a little rusty in her opening match against Chanda Rubin, a girl who upset Martina in March of this year on a similar surface. But match by match, Hingis had gotten a lot steadier and a lot sharper off the ground to the point where she crushed a weary Venus Williams in the final 6-4 6-0. Indeed, it was a memorable win for the precocious Hingis, and a win which can hopefully get her back on track to doing what she does best - winning.

If the San Diego title was taken away from Venus, her sister Serena helped to avenge that crushing loss in the following week at Los Angeles. She, too, looked a little rusty in her opening match against Elena Likhovtseva, understandably so as she had not played a competitive singles match since the French Open. Losing the first set to the Russian #2, Serena turned the tables around, and from that point on, did not drop a set en route to her third career title. The tell-tale match proved to be her semi final encounter against newly crowned world #1 Martina Hingis, who had clinched her previous two rounds needing three sets. Serena surprised Hingis, not so much with her trademark power, but with the consistency she displayed throughout the match. Hingis having no answers to the steamrolling Williams, she went down meekly in two sets 6-3 7-5.

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