TENNIS/Australian Open Championship: When Martina Hingis lost last year's final here to Jennifer Capriati, it appeared her brilliant but flickering had been all but snuffed out by the mighty rushing wind of the power hitters. Now she is back there again, for her sixth Australian final running, facing the same opponent tomorrow (BBC coverage starts 2.15 a.m.) with real hope as Capriati has been nursing a hip.
Melbourne is Hingis's most successful grand-slam stage. She won in 1997 as a 16-year-old, her first grand-slam title, and that year was champion at Wimbledon and the US Open too. But any thoughts of a protracted dominance were soon extinguished.
Though Hingis won the next two Australian titles, her victory over France's Amelie Mauresmo three years ago was the last of her five grand-slam titles. Lindsay Davenport beat her in the 2000 final and since then the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, together with Davenport and a resurgent Capriati, have left the multi-talented but comparatively small Hingis struggling to compete, especially when she has played them one after another.
By the beginning of this year, and after ankle surgery, she had slipped to world number four and there seemed no reason to suppose she would break the dominance. Her all-court game, with its emphasis on angles and changes of pace, appeared under terminal threat at the highest level.
Though she has retained the capacity to see off lesser talent with almost contemptuous ease, her vulnerability against sheer power had become so pronounced, it seemed, that only a peculiar set of circumstances could lead to another grand-slam title.
Yet here she is in the final without facing any big hitters.
Davenport was missing at the start because of injury. Then Serena Williams, originally in Hingis's half of the draw, as was Venus, pulled out on the first Monday without playing a match. Finally Monica Seles beat Venus in the quarters, which leaves only Capriati remaining.
Yesterday Seles suffered a severe let-down. The Swiss won 4-6 6-1 6-4, surviving a minor scare when, having raced to 5-1 in the final set, she could not at once close out the match.
In last year's final Capriati won in straight sets. It was her first grand-slam title and a seminal moment in her career. After all her early promise, when she reached the semi-finals of Wimbledon and the US Open as a 15-year-old in 1991, her young life spiralled out of control, almost to the point of sporting oblivion.
Hingis, though, was not only consumed by Capriati's more powerful hitting but also by the denouement of a story that cried out for a happy ending. Capriati finally triumphed in heart-warming fashion, then won the French Open. She is now world number one.
In yesterday's semi-final she beat Kim Clijsters 7-5 3-6 6-1. On the face of it she should beat Hingis again. However, she appeared mightily weary after her stern battle against the 18-year-old Clijsters, whom she narrowly defeated in last year's final at Roland Garros.
At the end of the second set the American was fading fast while Clijsters was on her toes. The first game of the third set, with Capriati serving, was crucial and the American might have trailed 0-40 if one shot, which clearly fell beyond the baseline, had been called out.
She still had a break point against her at 30-40 but clung on and it was Clijsters who folded.
"I was a little scared to overdo it out there," she admitted. "We'll see how I am on Saturday but I'm certainly not 100 per cent fit."
In the first men's semi-final Sweden's Thomas Johansson, the number 16 seed, defeated Jiri Novak, unseeded, of the Czech Republic 7-6 0-6 4-6 6-3 6-4.
HEAD TO HEAD:
Capriati v Hingis
Hingis leads 5-3
Year ... Tour. ... Surface ... Rd ... Winner
1997 ... Sydney ... Hard ... F ... Hingis
1998 Hamburg ... Clay ... Q ... Hingis
1999 ... Filderstadt ... Hard ... R16 ... ... Hingis
2000 'S-Hertog'ch Grass S Hingis
2000 Zurich Hard S Hingis
2001 Austra Open Hard F Capriati
2001 Charleston Clay F ... Capriati
2001 French Open Clay S Capriati
The Australian Open Women's Final will be shown live on BBC1 (programme starts 2.15 a.m.) and Eurosport from 3.00 a.m.
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