No. 1 Hingis Reprises the Final Act

The story line threatens to become monotonous: Martina Hingis advances to her fifth consecutive Grand Slam tournament final, against an interchangeable array of hapless victims. The sport may tire of the Swiss teenager long before she grows bored with her winning ways.

Eighth-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain slotted herself in as the latest Hingis opponent, as both players won their semifinal matches Thursday at the Australian Open.

Hingis defeated 10th-seeded Anke Huber of Germany, 6-1, 2-6, 6-1. Martinez upset second-seeded Lindsay Davenport of Newport Beach, 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

It is the first time Martinez, 25, has appeared in the final here and her first Grand Slam tournament final since 1994. The 17-year-old Hingis, who won three of the four Grand Slam events last year, is the defending champion at Melbourne Park.

The two have met four times. Martinez won the first two encounters, both on clay. Hingis won the last two, both on hardcourt last year.

Both players have a wealth of tournament experience they will be able to draw on in Saturday’s final.

“She’s been there, she knows,” Hingis said of Martinez in Grand Slam events. “I’m sure she remembers how it feels, but I’ll be there, too.”

Thursday’s semifinals were played on a cool afternoon with the center court roof open to partly cloudy skies.

In the first match, Davenport steadfastly pursued her customary game of firing for the lines. That resulted in 66 unforced errors for Davenport, exactly twice as many as Martinez. Seven of the match’s 12 service breaks went in Martinez’s favor.

Davenport said she had no choice but to go for it.

“It’s tough if I play someone like Conchita, because if I don’t, she is going to run me all around,” Davenport said. “It’s kind of a losing situation. I’m going to make a lot of errors when I play someone like that, and a lot of winners. Maybe I should have let up and let her make a few more errors.”

Davenport was right. She made 48 winners to 37 for Martinez.

Davenport won the first set with a break in the seventh game. The service breaks became epidemic in the second set--the first four service games were broken. Martinez sharpened her serve and began to dictate the points.

As the hourlong third set progressed, Martinez gained momentum. Davenport pressed and sprayed balls all over. In the third set alone she made 29 unforced errors, while Martinez tidied up her game and reduced her errors to nine.

Martinez won the last two games without giving up a point. She broke Davenport at love in the eighth game and closed her out with her serve.

Match point exemplified Davenport’s frustration. She followed a second serve to net and judged that Martinez’s backhand cross-court was going to fly long. It didn’t. The ball dropped on the baseline.

Martinez dropped to her knees and looked skyward; Davenport dropped her head and studied her shoes.

The match pitted two of the game’s most noted underachievers against each other. Both are gifted players whose lack of total commitment to their sport has been balanced by seeing to it that their lives are well-rounded and fulfilling. Such an approach has made Martinez and Davenport engaging and interesting people but indifferent top 10 players.

It was Davenport’s second Grand Slam tournament semifinal. She was eliminated from the semifinals at last year’s U.S. Open.

Davenport’s voyage to the semifinals was not without waves. She had to save a match point in the second round against Karina Habsudova, get past 15th-seeded Ruxandra Dragomir in the fourth round and come from behind to defeat the very hot Venus Williams in the quarterfinals.

The second match of the day was considerably shorter than the first.

Hingis had lost only one set before Thursday and played an overpowering first set.

Huber broke Hingis to win the second set and had two break points in the second game of the third set but failed to capitalize.

Hingis didn’t squander her chance when it came in the next game. She broke, then held to go up 3-1. A service break in the fifth game gave Hingis a commanding 4-1 lead.