Finally, a Major Confrontation

As far as storied rivalries go, the one between Steffi Graf of Germany and Martina Hingis of Switzerland is embryonic.

They are hardly peers. Graf will turn 30 on June 14. Hingis is still a teenager. Graf has won 21 Grand Slam tournaments, second only to Margaret Court’s 24. Hingis, at 18, has won five Grand Slam titles, and the French Open is the only major to have eluded her.

In eight matches, Graf has lost only twice to Hingis. They have met three times in Grand Slam events--Graf won all three in straight sets. But they have never played in a Grand Slam final.

That will change today, weather permitting. The top-seeded Hingis will play the sixth-seeded Graf in the French Open final, following completion of the rain-delayed Andre Agassi-Dominik Hrbaty semifinal.

There is no shortage of fascinating subplots. A year ago, Hingis was far more concerned about the other teenagers, certainly not Graf, who was trying to return from serious knee surgery.

“It’s a faster, more athletic game now than when she played,” Hingis said of Graf, in Tennis magazine a year ago. “She’s older now. Her time has passed.”

Graf held back on commenting on that statement, and did so again when Hingis diminished her accomplishments in late ’98. Graf won consecutive events in Leipzig, Germany, and Philadelphia, beating Hingis in the latter, and Hingis said that the other players were tired from the long year, whereas Graf was fresh.

It has never been Graf’s style to get involved in that type of petty dispute, and she laughed when someone told her that Hingis hoped she would be more nervous because it had been such a long while since she had been in a Grand Slam final--the 1996 U.S. Open.

Graf says she feels as though her accomplishments actually will make her more relaxed.

“I obviously don’t feel I have to prove anything,” she said. “I’m extremely happy to be there, where I am right now. I go out there and don’t feel I have to win, for sure. . . . I think that’s going to work for me.”

She has exceeded her modest expectations in Paris. There was no indication of this sort of performance in her play earlier this year.

“There have been a few [dark moments],” she said, “moments that I haven’t really been happy with the way I was playing. At Key Biscayne [Florida], I played a terrible match against Venus [Williams]. . . . There were a lot of moments where I was doubting what I was doing out there because I didn’t play up to my potential.”

Hingis has not had much self-doubt here. Unlike the last two years, she said, she is not tired and that she is “playing much smarter.”

“This is about time for me, at least once,” she said.

French Open

* Who: Completion of Andre Agassi-Dominik Hrbaty semifinal; Martina Hingis-Steffi Graf final.

* TV: 9 a.m. PDT (delayed), Ch. 4