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The great 1-2 punch

© Michael Cecilio

Once again, it is #1 versus #2. Martina Hingis versus Lindsay Davenport. Again. Their Indian Wells encounter marks the third time this year that the pair have reached the finals of the same tournament, having accomplished the same 1-2 feat in Melbourne and Scottsdale. This is a remarkable statistic considering it is only March, and Hingis and Davenport had only played each other a total of three times in the whole 1999 season. Many fans have marvelled at the depth of the current WTA tour - the fact that there is no one person you can count on to win a single tournament these days. Can we still count on that assumption? Or are we heading back to the days of yore when the WTA tour was only about Evert versus Navratilova? About Seles versus Graf? And now about Davenport versus Hingis?

The two seem unstoppable this year. Except for a minor blip in the beginning of the season when Amelie Mauresmo blitzed both girls in Sydney (and since then has won a total of just three matches on tour), the pair have not failed to reach the finals of all of the events they have played this year. Considering that both Davenport and Hingis seem to be playing the same tournaments, or at least are playing most of the majour tournaments, fans can be delighted to many more installments of this thrilling 1-2 rivalry.

It all started in 1995 when an underconfident and overweight Davenport narrowly edged an inexperienced but promising Hingis in an early round encounter in Sydney. No one would have guessed that four years later, the two would compete as major rivals on the biggest arenas of the world! Davenport, with her booming groundstrokes and her match experience, dominated the blooming rivalry. That is until Martina matured and discovered her potential in that stellar 1997 season when she completely took over the WTA tour as her own, and hence dominating the still emerging Davenport. The two traded off in 1998 with Hingis's dominance beginning to wane while Davenport's tennis began to flourish into the killer game she was destined to possess.

1999 proved to be somewhat of a mixed year for the Hingis-Davenport rivalry. At this point in time, their head-to-head series was locked with a narrow 7-6 edge to Hingis. At this point it was believed that nothing but a single point or two in a match was all that separated the girls. Sure enough through their rivalry, so many dramatic edge-of-your-seat three-setters with the winner an unknown quantity until the final point was played, proved this to be true. Not only the quality of the tennis but the contrast of playing styles and personalities combined to make their rivalry something exciting, something interesting, something fresh and something special. Not that their rivalry is no longer exciting nor interesting nor special, but it has become a touch predictable. After five straight wins to Lindsay, one would start to think that Davenport has gotten the wood on Hingis and that Hingis is no less than utterly frustrated and perplexed each time she goes to play a final against the towering 6'2 ½" American.