Hingis Glad Strut’s Back in Her Step at U.S. Open

What you thought was a know-it-all smile, was it really a facade?

Did Martina Hingis of Switzerland, at 17, not know it all on the tennis court anymore, the way she did at 16?

There were some serious doubts, caused mainly by a one-sided semifinal loss to Monica Seles at the French Open.

But Tuesday night at the U.S. Open--only days after expressing doubt in herself after a lackluster showing--the top-seeded Hingis took a sizable step in reinventing herself, defeating sixth-seeded Seles, the sentimental favorite, 6-4, 6-4, in the quarterfinals.

Hingis finished the match with an ace, jumped into the air and pumped her fist.

“[Seles] just kind of killed me in that match [in France],” Hingis said. “I just felt very happy out there. I’m happy I can still play tennis out there. I was worried about my game.”

Such self-doubt is rare for the usually confident Hingis. But then, she has not won a tournament since early May, and has failed to reach a Grand Slam final since winning the Australian Open in January.

Although Hingis is still ranked No. 1, she watched Lindsay Davenport and Jana Novotna close the gap this summer. And in the semifinals, Hingis will play the third-seeded Novotna, who defeated her at Wimbledon. Novotna, the Wimbledon champion, stopped it from being an all-Swiss semifinal by defeating 19-year-old Patty Schnyder, 6-2, 6-3, in 61 minutes in the quarterfinals. The match was marred by swirling winds and service breaks. Novotna broke Schnyder six times, and Schnyder broke Novotna twice.

“I expected a much, much harder match, there’s no question about it,” Novotna said. “But I also knew that after beating Steffi [Graf, Schnyder] may have let down a little bit because she’s still very young.

“In the future, she will be a great player. But at this moment, she simply didn’t know how to handle the situation.”

Said Schnyder, who’d upset Graf in the fourth round, “[The wind] was terrible to play in. At the beginning, not that bad. But it started to get really bad and [Novotna] played so deep. I couldn’t really find my game. Then it got worse and worse. It was horrible.”

Unlike Schnyder--and Seles, for that matter--Hingis enjoys windy conditions. She was able to control her shots, whereas Seles went for broke and often missed by an inch or two, committing 26 unforced errors.

The key statistic: Seles was one for seven on break-point opportunities, Hingis three for six. Perhaps the most critical game of the match was the fourth of the second set. Seles led, 2-1, and had three chances to break Hingis’ serve.

Hingis erased one break point with an ace. Seles missed another when she smacked a forehand wide and botched the third by pushing a relatively simple volley wide.

There was another indication this would be a victory for Hingis in the seventh game of the second set. Serving at 3-3, Seles was broken at 15 when Hingis hit a net-cord winner.

“I knew coming in she was going to want to win this match really badly, and she would try to raise her level of game,” Seles said. “And I think she did that. She definitely did that at key times when I didn’t raise my level.”

Seles apparently never felt truly comfortable here. She has had high points this year, reaching the French Open final and winning at Montreal. However, there have been other puzzling losses.

“I can’t say I was playing great tennis coming in here,” she said. “The way I played every single one of my matches here leading to this match has been, in my opinion, horrible.

“This match, I felt I raised my level of game. But it wasn’t enough.”

Hingis struggled in two lackluster victories over French players, Amelie Mauresmo and Nathalie Dechy and if anything, she looked almost relieved amid the joy of victory.

“I have the feeling I am getting better again,” she said. “I beat Monica Seles in the quarters. I think I am a different player again.

“I guess I was just thinking again on the court. That was a big difference. I just didn’t know what I was doing out there. That’s what I was doing last year and I lost that since. I was just somehow too confident. I went out there and was just going into the match not thinking about what I was doing.”

And Hingis sounded a warning for future opponents.

“It’s not over yet,” she said. “There’s still two matches to go. I just found new motivation to go in there and fight again, keep my head up.”

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