Stevenson Is Becoming Quite the Story Herself

Naturally, every aspect of the Martina Hingis affair has been analyzed in every possible way here, focusing on the absence of her mother and coach Melanie Molitor during the first-round loss to qualifier Jelena Dokic of Australia.

Other teenagers were asked whether they played matches without their mother in attendance. And leave it to bubbly Alexandra Stevenson of San Diego to put a unique spin on an otherwise routine answer.

She nodded and laughed when asked about her mother, Samantha, who writes for the New York Times. Stevenson, 18, was playing her first major event on grass at Birmingham, England, earlier this month and noticed her coach, Craig Kardon of the USTA, was sitting by himself.

“I was warming up and all of a sudden I looked up and she was gone,” Stevenson said. “I thought, ‘Why is she gone? That’s weird. Because it’s Birmingham. . . . Where is she going to go?’

“After my match, my mom comes back, and had to go. She ended up doing a story on Dokic’s father [Damir]. She saw him in action, a reporter on the run. She had to get the story.”

Stevenson had a lot to say on Thursday. Then again, it has been a dreamlike week for the qualifier making her Wimbledon debut. She won her second-round match against Olga Barabanschikova of Belarus, 6-2, 6-7 (7-3), 6-3, and will play 11th-seeded Julie Halard-Decugis of France in the third.

Then Stevenson decided to break some news, announcing she is turning professional, bypassing UCLA.

“I think I’m ready to be a pro now,” she said. “Why? Because I finished high school and my performance in the last three weeks, I know I can be a player. It would be really hard to go to college and come back [to the pros]. I would lose a lot. When it’s ready, you have to go.”

Now, she is counting on collecting on a bet with Tony Gwynn of the San Diego Padres after she beat Dominique Van Roost of Belgium two weeks ago.

“At the World Series last year, I went in the dugout and he said, ‘When you beat your first top-30 player, I’ll give you my bat from the World Series and you’ll give me your racket,’ ” she said. “He’s saving the bat for me. But he said, ‘That’s not enough, you have to beat more people.’ Two days ago, I beat Amy Frazier and she’s 27th, so I did call him and tell him that.”

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Speaking of Dokic. . . .

The 16-year-old had an odd match against Katarina Studenikova of Slovakia in the second round, winning, 6-0, 4-6, 8-6, in 1 hour 47 minutes.

Dokic acknowledged the pressure has been increased in the span of two days. Tabloid reporters have been following her father, who was detained by police for disorderly behavior at the Birmingham event. No charges were pressed.

“It’s a bit scary out there today,” she said. “I played quite well in that first set, and she sort of turned things around. My game dropped a little bit and it was hard to get back.”

She was asked how she felt in this new role.

“It’s a bit different, definitely,” Dokic said.

“Just more people talking to you and everybody knows you now [after] winning a match like that, and probably a bit more respect.”

Two seeded women lost in the second round and only one was a real surprise. Grass-court specialist Lisa Raymond beat seventh-seeded Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain, 7-6 (7-4), 6-1, and Tatiana Panova of Russia defeated Natasha Zvereva of Belarus, 6-4, 7-5. Zvereva, a semifinalist here last year, won the tuneup event at Eastbourne on Saturday.