Hingis Flows, Seles Ebbs

Tennis’ tidal patterns continue in their ruthless certainty. The new must replace the old. Progress means leaving a part of history behind.

With that inexorable pull, a three-time champion was washed out of the French Open here Thursday, replaced by a teenager whose career is charting much the same course as her own did.

Martina Hingis defeated Monica Seles in a compelling semifinal match that pitted a carefree 16-year-old No. 1 against a scarred but resilient former No. 1. Hingis was tested and won, 6-7 (2-7), 7-5, 6-4.

It was the best match of the women’s tournament and had all of the tension and presence of a final. Two of the tournament’s best shot makers dueled nearly to a standstill. No portion of the red clay court was left unmarked by skidding, sharply angled balls and feathery drop shots.

In the end, only nine points separated them.

Hingis, who has not lost a match this season, will play Iva Majoli in the final. The ninth-seeded Croatian defeated 11th-seeded Amanda Coetzer, 6-3, 4-6, 7-5. The mistake-ridden match featured 20 service breaks. Each player sprayed balls outside the lines, Coetzer committing 68 unforced errors and Majoli 67.

In contrast, the Hingis-Seles match was coldly efficient.

For the first time in this tournament, Hingis was extended, physically and mentally, during the 2-hour 18-minute match. Seles was the first player to put any appreciable pressure on Hingis, to respond to her array of drop shots, to refuse to cave in to Hingis’ proclamations of confidence.

“I’m more happy than I can really show anyone,” Hingis said. “It was just an amazing match. Physically, I don’t think I’m 100% anymore. I feel like I’m getting [muscle] cramps every minute. After a match like this, if you have to run on the court for two hours against Monica, you just don’t feel in great shape anymore.

“She just played really aggressive. I couldn’t really handle it because I didn’t play anyone like this for the whole tournament. It was just such a different game. I just wanted to get out of the pressure and do something by myself. Some of the balls, she hit unbelievable winners to the lines. I’m, ‘OK, what am I going to do? Have I any chances out here?’ ”

The top-seeded Hingis blew her chances in the first set by playing a listless tiebreaker in which she admitted to having played “stupid.” That’s a word rarely applied to Hingis’ game, since she has uncanny court sense.

The wind began to gust in the second set and the skies alternated between blue and gray. Even as the conditions vacillated the players prepared to fight for each point. Hingis prevailed by pulling Seles around the court with shots of depth and angle. Seles was also hitting angles, for which she is known, but it did little good because Hingis anticipates and moves so well to the ball.

Seles, who will move up to No. 2 in next week’s rankings, hit key serves when she had to but generally had trouble holding serve, offering Hingis a chance to win the set earlier than she did. Seles was serving at 3-5 and Hingis had two set points. Only two service winners bailed out Seles. Hingis broke Seles in her next service game and served an ace to win the set.

Hingis also had a chance to close out the match earlier than she did. With Seles serving in the seventh game of the third set, Hingis had one break point she failed to convert. Had she won, it would have been 5-2 with her serving for the set. Instead, Seles came up with another service winner to stave off the inevitable.

Hingis needed two match points to finish it, and when she did, she leaped in the air with an enthusiasm she failed to carry over to her postmatch interviews. Impatient and bored with answering journalists’ questions, Hingis abruptly ended the English-language portion of the news conference.

Oddly, it used to be Seles who was considered eccentric. Only five years ago, Seles, then 18, appeared to be well on her way to an unending string of French Open titles. She won three in a row from 1990 to 1992 and was preparing for the French when she was stabbed at the German Open on April 30, 1993.

It’s impossible to gauge where Seles might have stood in the records had that attack not intervened and kept her off the tour for 2 1/2 years.

Seles’ assurance on clay is such that, including Thursday’s, she has lost only 10 matches on the surface in her seven-year career and has a .907 winning percentage on clay. And the French Open was her particular playground. She once won 25 consecutive matches here over three years.

Since returning to tennis after the stabbing, Seles, 23, has battled a series of injuries, and now faces a wrenching personal trial. Karolj Seles, her father and coach, is at home in the United States battling a recurrence of stomach cancer.

To some observers, the Seles-Steffi Graf era has been ushered out by Hingis. Seles was asked if watching Hingis play evoked memories of herself at that age. Seles sighed and smiled wryly at the implication that her time was over.

“You can’t compare,” Seles said. “What has passed is past. You have to look to the future. We’re just different personalities. It’s hard for me to think of [myself] at 16. Was I the same as Martina at 16? You can’t compare. Each one is an individual.”