Hingis Still Has a Way With Words

Martina Hingis is back at Wimbledon. Her graceful scamper along the baseline, her radar-guided ground strokes, her well-placed volleys, her delightfully uncensored talking, it’s all here.

Hingis, 25, returned to the All England Club for the first time in three years and Tuesday gave 18-year-old Olga Savchuk of Ukraine a lesson in how to hit every shot. From serves delicately tucked into corners to volleys struck with vim to drop shots with enough spin to whip cream, Hingis hit them all.

The woman who first won Wimbledon as a 16-year-old beat Savchuk, 6-2, 6-2, then explained what is wrong with women’s tennis.

“Myself, I do not respect many of the coaches who are out there,” said Hingis, coached by her mother Melanie Molitor. “I don’t think they’re doing the right thing with the girls. If my mom wouldn’t have forced me to come in, move in, I’d be back on the baseline. I think it really is the mentality and the coach who helps to get the best out of you.”

Hingis left the WTA Tour for nearly three years partly because she was being overpowered from the baseline by the relentless strength of players like Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati.

In fact, Hingis lost 14 of the 16 matches she played against Capriati, the Williams sisters and Davenport before retiring from the WTA Tour with sore feet and, it seemed, a broken spirit.

But things have changed.

Capriati, though not retired, hasn’t played a Grand Slam since the 2004 U.S. Open. Davenport, 30, has missed the last two major tournaments because of a back injury that probably will cause her retirement soon; Serena Williams is sidelined by a knee injury and her last major title came at the 2005 Australian Open; and Venus Williams missed three months of play this winter and fell low enough in the rankings to be seeded only 14th at last year’s Wimbledon after battling shoulder and wrist injuries over the past two years.

It is Hingis who is drawing the biggest crowds to her court now, and it is mainly Justine Henin-Hardenne, who won the French Open three weeks ago, who can match Hingis in shot-making ability and all-court awareness.

Henin-Hardenne, in fact, won her opening match Tuesday even more quickly than Hingis. The Belgian needed only 56 minutes to beat Yuan Meng of China, 6-0, 6-1.

At the same time that Hingis was resting her sore feet and looking for her lost confidence back home in Switzerland, Henin-Hardenne tried lifting weights and making her upper body stronger to counteract the power of players bigger and heavier than she was.

At 5 feet 5 and about 130 pounds, Henin-Hardenne was at least six inches shorter and 30 pounds lighter than most of the top players but all her hard work didn’t pay off. She missed most of 2004 because of a viral illness and most of the first third of 2005 because of a strained hamstring.

Now, Henin-Hardenne said, she has given up on being more muscular and decided she can do better with less weight and more speed.

“It’s true that I’m lighter than in the past,” Henin-Hardenne said. “I’m still working pretty hard but in another way. I work a lot on my endurance, a lot on my stretching. I do a lot of foot drills, that sort of thing.”

Hingis, 5-6, suggested that other women should look at the success not just of herself and Henin-Hardenne but also three-time defending men’s champion Roger Federer. “I think you always have to learn from the best. He is the best so you better watch him.”

Hingis has.

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English turns

Martina Hingis played her first match at Wimbledon on Tuesday since losing in the first round in 2001. Her year-by-year record at Wimbledon. Note: Her only title came in 1997:

*--* Year Round Opponent 1995 First Steffi Graf 1996 Fourth Steffi Graf 1997 Winner Jana Novotna 1998 Semifinals Jana Novotna 1999 First Jelena Dokic 2000 Quarterfinals Venus Williams 2001 First Ruano Pascual

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Source: Los Angeles Times