Hingis Walks the Walk, Cruises to U.S. OpenTitle by Cindy Shmerler Sunday, 7 September 1997 Martina Hingis

With the grace of a gazelle, the precision of a sharp shooter and the playfulness of a toddler, 16-year-old Martina Hingis marched through her third Grand Slam of the year, making 17-year-old Venus Williams look like a rank amateur in a 6-0, 6-4, one-hour and two-minute demolition to win the U.S. Open. It was Hingis' fourth major final of the season and extended her astounding record to 63 wins against just two losses. Only a defeat in the final of the French Open to Iva Majoli prevented the Swiss teen from becoming just the third woman in tennis history to win the coveted Grand Slam, the others being American Maureen "Little Mo" Connolly in 1953 and Australian Margaret Court in 1970.

It's not as if Williams played a terrible match, just an inexperienced one, which is understandable considering that she has played just 10 tournaments this year, had never advanced beyond the quarterfinals in her pro career and had won only one match in a Grand Slam prior to this event. But from the first game of the match, when she squandered a 40-15 lead with four unforced errors, three of them on the backhand side, Williams was simply overmatched.

"Yeah, probably, it was a turning point in the match," said Williams, who committed 38 unforced errors and held just two game points in the entire first set. "I was probably nervous in the beginning. That's only natural. But I also think that maybe I just thought I had to do too much. Maybe I wanted to end the points a little too quickly. Sometimes I tend to play like that."

Hingis went up 3-1 in the second set but Williams broke back in the eighth game, evening things up at 4-4 with a crosscourt forehand winner that Hingis returned into the net. But Hingis broke right back in the next game when Williams hit a forehand that hit the top of the net and fell over just wide and then slapped a forehand approach into the net. Hingis held for the match with a majestic serve and forehand volley off her sneakertops.

"I just played very good tennis out there," effused Hingis who, with her $650,000 in prize money became the first female player in history to surpass the $3 million mark in a single season. "I'm very happy about my whole tennis game. I just had a great year. You know, what can I improve? Sometimes I ask myself. It's a little scary. I haven't won the French Open so that's kind of my goal."

Were it not for a horse named Tina, Hingis might very well be a Grand Slam holder this year. For it was just a little more than a month before the French Open that Hingis fell off a friend's horse, underwent arthroscopic surgery on her knee and was out of competition until the start of Roland Garros. What is particularly ironic is that Maureen Connolly, who was just 16 when she won her first major - the 1951 U.S. Nationals -- and 18 when she captured the Grand Slam, was also a horse lover who, tragically, had her career ended at age 19 when a horse she was riding shied in fright at the sound of an oncoming truck and crashed down on Maureen's twisted leg. She had just won her third Wimbledon and was looking forward to competing for her fourth U.S. title.

Stylistically, Hingis and Little Mo have much in common as well, with both of them possessing uncanny hand-eye coordination, the ability to play both off the ground and in the air and incredibly complete games and such a tender age. Their biggest difference, perhaps, is their attraction to the sport. Connolly simply feared losing, while Hingis merely craves winning. "I hated my opponents," Connolly wrote several years before her death from cancer in 1969. "This was no passing dislike, but a blazing, virulent, powerful and consuming hate. I believed I could not win without hatred, and win I must because I was afraid to lose."

Hingis possesses no such evil thoughts, either about losing or about her opponents. While most newcomers to the tour - including Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and now Venus Williams - have maintained an aloofness that has often been construed as arrogance, Hingis has made friends with virtually everyone in the lockerroom. Lindsay Davenport, who was vanquished by Hingis in the semifinals, called her funny, honest and happy-go-lucky, adding that she thinks Hingis has the best attitude of any top player that's ever been there. And when Hingis was asked about Williams, who has taken tremendous heat for an overpowering, even overbearing, level of confidence this year, she was not only diplomatic but sympathetic as well.

"I think it's always hard when you're the newcomer on the tour," said Hingis. "It wasn't easy for me, too. The other players just look at you. They don't know what to expect from you because everyone is talking about you and the media is paying so much attention. If you don't bring the results, everyone is kind of not very happy because you haven't shown anything to the other players." Hingis, at this point, has shown plenty of herself to everyone who will watch. It may be hard for her to improve on this year's results in 1998, especially if Steffi Graf comes back better than even and bent on re-establishing herself as the No. 1 player in the world. But regardless of the future, Martina Hingis' present has been a gift to the sport.