Season-Ending Chase Title on the Line

The smile sweeps quickly across her face, igniting a sparkle in her eyes.

“I’m doing better this year,” Martina Hingis rushes to point out. “It’s nice to be No. 1, to be sure, but you want to be able to win again.”

She will try to do just that at the season-ending Chase Championships of the WTA Tour, which begin Monday at Madison Square Garden.

Hingis, the tournament’s defending champion, has won 65 matches this year and seven titles, including the Australian Open, more than any other player in women’s tennis.

She should be riding high. Instead, she’s looking over her shoulder.

Right behind her is Lindsay Davenport, who won Wimbledon in July and was briefly the world’s No. 1-ranked player earlier this season before Hingis reclaimed the top spot.

The real problems for the 19-year-old Hingis could be next in line--the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena.

“They’re strong, powerful,” Hingis said. “We respect each other.”

The respect was earned on the court. Hingis has a 2-3 record against Venus Williams in 1999 and is 1-3 against Serena, at 18 the youngest of the top four. Davenport has lost her last four matches against the sisters, twice to each.

“It’s better for the fans,” Hingis said, trying to explain why she no longer dominates the sport as she did two years ago. “That’s why women’s tennis is so popular right now.”

For the fourth straight year the women’s tour has broken its attendance record, with crowds this year up nearly 13 percent over 1998.

It wasn’t all strawberries and cream for Hingis this year, especially at the French Open and Wimbledon. She reached the final at Paris, but broke down in tears when she lost to Steffi Graf and had to be ushered back onto the court by her mother for the trophy ceremony.

Two weeks later, it was worse.

Without Melanie Molitor, her mother and coach, sitting in the stands, Hingis was shocked in the opening round at Wimbledon by Australian qualifier Jelena Dokic. That was her worst showing since a first-round defeat in her first trip to Wimbledon in 1995 when she was 14.

“This year was extremely educational,” Hingis said. “Sometimes you feel you’re not allowed to make any mistakes.

At least Hingis won’t have to worry about Graf at the Chase Championships. After winning the French Open and reaching the final at Wimbledon, the German right-hander retired.

Graf, who won five Chase Championship titles and five U.S. Open crowns, will be honored Tuesday night at Madison Square Garden.

“Although we will miss her on the court, it seems appropriate for Steffi to leave the game the same year as Michael Jordan, John Elway and Wayne Gretzky,” said Bill Jemas, executive vice president of MSG Sports Properties.

Also missing will be 1997 winner Jana Novotna and three-time champion Monica Seles. Novotna also has retired. Seles, who last won in 1992, qualified for the event but is sidelined with a stress fracture in her right foot.

Hingis begins her quest for a second straight Chase title by playing Sandrine Testud, one of five French players in the field. To reach the final, she might have to beat the third-seeded Venus Williams, who begins against Spain’s Conchita Martinez.

Serena Williams, seeded fourth, is in the bottom half of the draw where her first-round opponent will be Belgium’s Dominique Van Roost. To play her sister in the best-of-3-sets final--the top women decided they didn’t want to play best-of-5 any more--Serena might have to get past the second-seeded Davenport, who begins against Amelie Mauresmo of France.

Besides Testud and Mauresmo, other French contenders are fifth-seeded Mary Pierce, No. 6 Nathalie Tauziat and No. 8 Julie Halard-Decugis.

The Williams sisters, Mauresmo and Austria’s Barbara Schett will be making their debuts at the event.

Davenport also has her eyes on a unique record -- winning the doubles title four consecutive years with four different partners.

She won in 1996 with Mary Joe Fernandez, repeated in 1997 with Jana Novotna and captured last year’s crown with Natasha Zvereva. This year, Davenport is teamed with Corina Morariu, and they won Wimbledon.

But their first-round opponent will be the Williams sisters, winner of the French and U.S. Opens and probably the heavy favorite to win on the Garden carpet.

Hingis and Anna Kournikova are the top-seeded doubles team, with Davenport and Morariu seeded No. 2.