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Page 3
The loss to Venus Williams in the 2000 US Open signalled her lack of self-belief when she failed to put away an overhead to give her match point. Her loss to Jennifer Capriati in the 2001 Australian Open final was painful given that she had done the hard work by beating the Williams sisters back-to-back, she was a heavy favourite to win and she was ready to put the Grand Slam drought to rest. Her loss to Serena Williams in the 2001 US Open was just demoralising as she was given absolutely no chances from the get-go. But more recently, and perhaps the most disturbing of all, was her chances against Capriati in this year’s Australian Open final. With four match points at various intervals throughout the second set of their match, Hingis failed to capitalise on any and withered away in the third set to lose such a huge opportunity at winning her sixth major. It was her match and she was firmly in control, but in such bizarre uncharacteristic circumstances, she “choked” the title away with a lack of confidence, a lack of self-belief and a little bit of a fear factor.
Mario Widmer, her manager, was once quoted as saying that Martina is a great player but not a great fighter. It is simply going to be make or break time for the great player as she is going to have to put on the greatest fight of her life if she wants to get back to the top of the game. She either fights to get back, and thereby devoting all her energies to becoming a fit, fast, consistent and confident player with an improved service technique, or she languishes in the #11-#15 region. My take is that she fights harder and works harder than she ever has before because of the one thing that makes the girl tick, and that is her pride. And she is basically going to have to give it her all to get out of the funk because she will probably give it in if she can’t.
The copyright of the article Losing her way. Will she lose her will too? - Page 3 in Women's Tennis is owned by . Permission to republish Losing her way. Will she lose her will too? - Page 3 in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.
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