R
Rodeo
Guest
Healed and hopeful, Hingis back in service
By Bud Collins, Globe Correspondent | January 15, 2006
MELBOURNE -- Welcome back to the big league.
That may have been the feeling of Justine Henin-Hardenne -- sarcastic or sentimental? -- as she looked across the net a few days ago in Sydney and saw someone you might consider the ghost of championships past. Then she set about bashing Martina Hingis, just to let her know the tennis times have been a-changin'.
How changed?
''All these Russians, big strong girls, twice as big as I am," says the 5-foot-7-inch Hingis, reappearing on an island she used to own called Australia. ''Playing Justine" -- who is not Russian or twice as big (smaller, in fact) -- ''is a different ballgame. I have to be patient. It will take a lot of tournaments and matches, but I'm a competitor."
No doubt about that, and perhaps there was some consolation in Henin-Hardenne winning the tournament.
But, absent for three years, Hingis leaps back into the good-old-summertime glare of heat and hype at Melbourne Park as one of the biggest -- yet least prepared -- names in the Australian Open that begins unfolding tomorrow.
''She gives us a boost," says tournament CEO Paul McNamee, concerned that three of the top guys -- titleholder Marat Safin, four-time champ Andre Agassi, French Open champ Rafael Nadal -- are shut-ins holding doctors' excuses. ''I believe Martina will do well."
He hopes so, as do most, because Hingis is crazy about Australia, and vice versa. Last seen here in the 2002 final, a deep-fried meltdown special on Hades-resembling pavement of about 125 degrees, she and Jennifer Capriati slugged away gallantly, needing serious rehydrating when it was over. Hingis had 4 match points; Capriati got the championship, 4-6, 7-6 (9-7), 6-2.
Later that year, Hingis lost in the fourth round of the US Open to Monica Seles, then required ankle surgery. It was her farewell to the majors until now. (Hingis is encouraged by the Seles history. A drop-out for two years after the stabbing, Seles rebounded to win her fourth Aussie title in 1996.)
That fiery duel with Capriati was Hingis's sixth straight Aussie final, a run that hadn't been made since the 1971-76 trot of the blithe home girl, Evonne Goolagong. Hingis won three of those six (1997-98-99), and held five majors at age 18.
In her 2006 return, a lesser tournament at a resort north of Sydney, she beat three foes, household names -- possibly -- in their own households (Maria Vento-Kabchi, Klara Koukalova, Nuria Llagostera Vives), losing a semi to a good Italian, No. 20 Flavia Pennetta, 1-6, 7-6 (7-2), 6-2. But she strained a hip and withdrew from doubles.
''Well, I'm not 18 anymore," concedes the Slovak-born Swiss citizen, now seven years farther up the line. ''I can't recover as quickly. I thought I did pretty well."
Thus enspirited, she descended on Sydney last week for a crack at a livelier crowd. Who then should show up in her first round but the 2004 Australian champ, like herself a future Hall of Famer: No. 8 Henin-Hardenne. Welcome back, indeed: a 6-3, 6-3 breezing for the Belgian.
''Good progress over two tournaments," Hingis appraises herself, slipping through the Open's back door on a deserved wild card. ''I haven't done that much for three years, and I see my present level is enough for the top 20.
''I had doubts, but they're out of the way. I feel better every day, and I'm positive. Chin up. Happy to compete again. I missed the game.
''I look at these big, muscular girls. Very physical. But I have skills, and the mental part is my biggest weapon."
Powerful and Russian for openers is No. 30 Vera Zvonareva, a 21-year-old as high up as No. 11 in 2004. That's a stiff test, and McNamee, the Open's boss, as well as countless Hingisites, will be crossing their pinkies, praying that she will improve her 44-5 match record in this town.
Since Zvonareva, frequently emotional, can weep at the drop of a serve, Hingisites hope (it's nothing personal) that the reborn ''Heidi of the Hardcourts" will send the Russian home bawling.
Henin-Hardenne and Zvonareva. Those draws did Hingis no favors. With a Machiavellian smile, Roman journalist Rino Tommasi says, ''That would never happen in Italy. You don't want to risk losing such a people's favorite in the first round."
Alas for Hingis, it's on the up-and-up Down Under.
Two wins could land her in a third-round jam with No. 5, the revived French and US Open finalist, 31-year-old Mary Pierce.
Hingis, clever at controlling points, sharp of anticipation, made her name and $19 million in prize money as a hit-'em-where-they-ain't type, a be-where-they-don't-expect-me *******. Is that enough in these days of size and heavy-lifting strength?
''I'll find out," she says. ''Either I'll belong up with the top players again or I won't. But I'll be fighting. There's still a sort of aura about me. A lot of players don't know me."
Those who watched Hingis, on behalf of New York, beat up her namesake, Martina Navratilova of the Boston Lobsters at Harvard last summer, thought Martina II looked terrific. But that was World Team Tennis and its brief, one-night-stand gigs.
This gang -- Davenport, Clijsters, Mauresmo, Sharapova, Pierce, Petrova, Henin-Hardenne, the Sisters Williams, Dementieva, Myskina -- is the world's finest in best-of-three sets, no time limit. Seven wins over two weeks gets you the title.
Foot and ankle injuries sent Hingis into retirement too soon. Your mail carrier would understand, but he/she doesn't have to make the rounds on the run.
Run, Martina, run! That will be the cry from innumerable throats within Rod Laver Arena as she shows her confident face once more. Is Switzerland expecting another title? Of course. But from a citizen named Roger Federer. You'd have to be as crazy as a Swiss cuckoo clock to bet against him.
