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Saying goodbye again - Page 7

© Michael Cecilio

Don't be fooled though. There are many other players who have had long-standing success at this tournament, and in fact, they all showed up in the semi finals. Hingis was up against defending champion Sandrine Testud, who saved her best form all season for this tournament. Against the ever-confident Serena Williams in the second round, the odds were against her, but she managed to claw away from a 1-5 deficit in the third set to win 3-6 6-4 7-5. Her form was so good she nearly managed to beat Martina Hingis as well in the tournament, taking the first set 7-6 and stretching Hingis to 6-4 in the third set. Sandrine did not walk away empty handed though, she won the doubles with her long-time partner Chanda Rubin.

4th seed Mary Pierce won the title in 1993 and again reached the finals in 1994, losing to the opponent she would face in the 1999 semi finals, Anke Huber. Huber won the title in 1991 and again in 1994, and has also maintained a good relationship with this tournament in her home country of Germany. Although she beat Pierce in the 1994 final, Huber has not had any success against the more powerful Pierce in their last four encounters, and this one would prove no different as Pierce won 6-1 7-6.

Mary Pierce took full advantage of Lindsay Davenport's withdrawal due to injury and Martina Hingis took full advantage of Serena Williams' defeat to set up a finals' showdown between two players who seemed evenly poised in the beginning of the match. Hingis led their head-to-head series by a slender 6-5 lead entering this encounter, and although Hingis was the more accomplished of the two players, the indoor arena favoured Pierce's powerful serve and potent grounstrokes. But just as Hingis had done previously against Pierce, Martina exposed Mary's lack of mobility and on the fast courts, can be an easy thing to do, provided Martina could return Mary's heavy artillery with authority. That she did in a match which lasted just an hour as Martina won 6-4 6-1.

Filderstadt also proved to be the tournament for an interesting doubles tandem. We've seen Hingis and Kournikova together in what was a popular combination for the crowds. Now we've seen the combination of what would be considered the titans of tennis. World #1 Martina Hingis and world #2 Lindsay Davenport combined finesse and power respectively and joined forces as the top seeds for the tournament. Due to Lindsay's injury, they were forced to withdraw, but it would be interesting to see if these two on-court rivals ever ham it up on the same side of the net in the future. They could be just what the Grand-Slam-doubles-dominant Williams sisters need on the doubles court - their biggest rivals in singles could also potentially be their biggest rivals in doubles.

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