Hail Her Higness, Hingis

A celebrity at 16, she’s attractive, athletic, wealthy, and wise enough to duck questions about whether she dates.

“If you’re traveling as much as I do, it’s hard to find somebody,” Martina Hingis says with a laugh. “You would have to go every week with someone else, that’s the problem.”

Although dating is out for Hingis, matchmaking is in. And the match that women’s tennis wants is Hingis against Steffi Graf.

The game needs it, and so do both players.

Graf, saddled with health and personal problems, could be rejuvenated by the challenge Hingis poses as the youngest No. 1 player in history. Hingis, meanwhile, could validate her ranking by beating Graf, the game’s dominant player for the past decade.

*

Perhaps most important, the showdown could give the women’s tour a boost and dispel the gloom hanging over it. Top stars Graf, Monica Seles, Jennifer Capriati and Mary Pierce too often make headlines because of turmoil instead of triumph.

“When Steffi comes back,” Hall of Famer Billie Jean King says, “we’re going to have a great rivalry.”

Graf’s most recent tournament was in Tokyo 10 weeks ago. She was to face Hingis in the final but withdrew because of a knee injury and hasn’t played since.

Hingis, 31-0 this year, replaced Graf at the top of the rankings March 31. The next tournament for both players is in Hamburg, Germany, beginning April 28.

Hingis is taking a three-week break before starting the European clay season. Graf has returned to the practice court, her knee better and her tax trouble resolved.

An investigation ended last month when she paid $775,000 to German tax authorities and charity. Her father, convicted of evading millions of dollars in taxes on his daughter’s winnings, faces nearly four years in prison.

While Graf’s difficulties reinforced her image as a grim German, Hingis seized the spotlight as a sunny Swiss miss. She climbed to No. 1 grinning and giggling, too young to worry about injuries or taxes or even dating.

And she’s not inclined to worry about Steffi Graf.

“Right now, I don’t know if it’s that good to talk about Steffi,” Hingis says. “As soon as she gets back, she’s a great player.”

In Graf’s absence, Hingis has won more than $1.2 million and six tournaments this year, including the Australian Open. Sixteen has never been so sweet.

“Why should I be worried about the future?” Hingis says. “Right now, almost everything is perfect.”

Not so for Graf, who turns 28 in June. She has struggled with a bad back for more than two years, and the slip from No. 1--where she has spent a record 374 weeks--suggests that her reign may be over.

But Billie Jean King, for one, expects Graf to return motivated from her setbacks.

“Her sanctuary was on the tennis court,” King says. “People didn’t understand that very well. When she got to the tennis court, she could leave everything behind and focus on tennis and escape for a while.”

Eventually, Hingis’ stiffest challenge will come from her own generation--perhaps 16-year-old Venus Williams or 15-year-old Anna Kournikova. But Hingis vs. Graf is compelling because of the contrasts--not only in age and disposition, but in playing style.

Graf has won 21 Grand Slam titles with a forehand and serve that overpower opponents. The 115-pound Hingis makes fun of her own forehand, hits softball serves and compensates for a lack of muscle with more subtle strengths: footwork, anticipation, economy of motion and return of serve. Her finesse and savvy belie her youth.

“She has unbelievable court sense,” King says. “That’s something you really can’t teach. You’re really born with that.”

The consensus on the women’s tour is that Graf would have her hands full against Hingis.

“If Steffi is healthy and if she is going to keep on playing, then definitely it will be a great challenge for her toward the end of her career to try to overtake Martina,” Jana Novotna says.

Hingis is 1-5 against Graf, but much has changed since their most recent meeting last November at the Chase Championships, when Graf won in five sets.

If a showdown fails to materialize at Hamburg, it could come later in the clay-court season--perhaps in the final at the French Open.

That’s a date Hingis would be happy to make.