Hingis Breaks Up the Act : TENNIS : Swiss Takes Great Pleasure in Cramping Rivals’ Style

Think of her as the Yankee Killer. On what was to be a red, white and blue American day at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, the Swiss Miss spoke last and loudest here Friday.

Martina Hingis is No. 1 in the world of women’s tennis for a reason. Lots of reasons, actually.

When she ended a spectacular day at Arthur Ashe Stadium with a three-set semifinal victory over Venus Williams, she had a show-stopper they’ll be talking about for years.

Not only did she ruin the Sister Act final that had seemed so much like fate--Serena Williams outslugged defending champion Lindsay Davenport in three rugged sets in the first semifinal and then Venus went up a service break in the third set of the second semifinal--Hingis did it with an exclamation point, and with the smiling arrogance of an accomplished assassin, the smugness of somebody who knew all along. She’s good, she knows it,and she’s not afraid to act it or say it.

She also has no affection for the Williams sisters, and their loose-cannon father, Richard, who predicted early last week his daughters would meet in the final.

So, once Serena beat Davenport, and once Venus started firing bullets from the baseline to win the second set and edge ahead in the third set of her match, a lesser player might easily have talked herself into folding and giving in to fate. The pressure on Hingis was tremendous. She was, after all, in America, at this country’s premier tennis event, playing in front of 20,009 people, most of them Americans and most of them seemingly caught up in the Sister-Sister final story line.

At 2-2 of the final set, Hingis and Venus Williams played the ultimate game, exchanging deep shots from the baseline, chasing each other from corner to corner and hitting line after line. Each must have run half a mile in that game alone, and when it ended and Williams had the service break, Hingis looked as though she was done.

But with Hingis, both physically and mentally, there always seems to be another level.

“I was exhausted after 2-all and I didn’t make that game,” Hingis said. “But like, she didn’t serve that well in the next game and I was like, ‘OK, keep her on the run and see.’

“I know that I was exhausted, but I could find myself better in that game again.”

Find herself, indeed. She somehow broke back for 3-3, held for 4-3, and then things really got interesting.

Williams foot-faulted to drop to 15-30 on her serve, then hit a weak forehand into the net and looked to be in distress. Until that point, the physical edge seemed to go to Williams, except for a service-speed average that had dipped well into the 80s and stayed there since the second set.

Now, serving with a motion that was more contortion than anything, Williams actually bounced two serves to the net to lose the game, and then called for the trainer. America’s dream final was about to be short-circuited by some cramps. And by the irrepressible Hingis.

Williams made her way to the net on Hingis’ first service point at 5-3, but her winning volley would be her last hurrah. At 30-15, Williams dropped a short volley to Hingis’ backhand side, setting up Hingis for the moment, the exclamation point.

After exactly two hours of tennis, in the heat and humidity of a New York summer day, in the pressure cooker of this rare occasion, Hingis dashed forward, made a lunge just before the ball bounced for the second time and somehow flicked a one-handed backhand passing shot that cleared the net by a fraction of an inch and continued on down the line into Williams’ corner.

While the place went nuts, Hingis bent over, pumped her fist and celebrated the moment. Her opponent was cramping, already done. But Hingis, who had turned and grinned on Williams’ cramp-induced feeble double fault the game before, couldn’t resist one more in-your-face celebration.

Williams’ long return of serve on match point wasn’t important. The end had come, harshly and sensationally, on the previous point.

Afterward, Hingis talked about having some luck on that shot, but added, “I have come up with more of these. It happened in the past.”

When asked about Williams’ cramping, Hingis, showing her usual compassion, said, “I let her run a lot. I was like expecting it to come--not expecting, but I was like hoping for it, let’s say that.”

When the subject of her opponent for today’s final, Serena Williams, came up, Hingis smiled and said, “Another one. I have so far not been able to beat both of them at the same tournament. But you know, hopefully, there is always a first time.”

Somebody mentioned they had seen Serena back out on the courts, practicing, after her win over Davenport.

“Right, go more and get cramps too.” Hingis said. “Work really hard.

“I’m going to get a massage.”

That’s her, one of tennis’ Girls of Summer. The one with the killer smile and game to go with it.