I think it has to be a Swiss thing.
When they play ball…serenity is all that prevails. We quite often see it with Federer,
It holds to perfection with Hingis too. When I watch her play I can unwind; I can relax; I can stretch my feet and breathe light;I can pour myself a scotch and savor the vintage essence of it. All will be well because I know she’ll take care of the rest.
All will be well because such was her shot-making ability. At her best, nothing was ever in any risk of being missed. Nothing ever was inconsistent; nothing really could go wrong and most of the time…nothing ever did. She made you feel safe as her fan when she was playing, a sort of antithesis to F.Gonzo fans.
When I was in twelfth grade, this kid rocked up to win Wimbledon. There was a toothy grin and an effervescent smile on her. Beneath that was the heart of a cold, calculating, smiling assassin. Her court sense was second to none, and ingenuity ,not power, was the cornerstone of her game.
Hingis had every shot in the book, but her signature double fisted back-hand down the line was exemplary. In her hey-days what she lacked in power and physical frame, she made up with her strategy and working opponents out quite easily.
Her sheer variety of shots confounded opponents, the elegance in those very same was magnetic to tennis aficionados. Equally versatile at the net and baseline, her second serve was her biggest Achilles heel. "You gotta make Martina feel bad about her second serve", would claim Davenport once.
Her effervescent persona embraced the laid back Australian ambiance so well that she reached six finals there in consecutive years, winning three of them. A Czechoslovakian by origin who played for Switzerland, she was named after Martina Navratilova.
Her mum (Melanie Molitor) was her closest confidante and coach. She was a self-confessed equestrian who loved to ride horses during her own time (and to her mum’s dismay, fall off them during slams too) and was a promoter of the ultra-refined product, Omega watches.
With six slam titles in her closet (three Australian, one each at Wimbledon and The Open), she was three points away from holding up the Roland Garros trophy.
However, we now begin to move from the bright to the darker shades of her personality, which, quite logically, only makes her even more intriguing.
Quite snobbish at times during her teen days (although, really, who amongst us hasn’t been there?). I personally embrace her personality of letting the world know exactly what she thought about things, most of the times to her "PR" team’s utter consternation.
An adorable spoiled brat at times, she was never scared to throw tantrums in the biggest of stages in the world. The Roland Garros Final of1999 beckons, this was a classical meltdown…up 6-4 2-0, Hingis would question a side line call and actually walk across the net to point out the ball mark on clay, the crowd jeering.
She would refuse to continue playing demanding the organizers to come out, all this while incensing the infamously volatile French crowd that was already rooting for Graf. She would lose the second set 5-7, after serving for the championship at 5-4 (15-0).
Appearing constantly irritated, she would further be involved in an elongated discussion when the crowd unabashedly took Graf’s side in the third set. Even the normally composed Graf would lose her composure and would walk up to the umpire to get on with playing.
She would top it by serving underhand once, would eventually go down 2-6 in the final set. Inconsolably distraught, if it wasn’t for her mum she probably would not have come back to the presentation ceremony. An eighteen year old’s monumental meltdown was to be throwing tantrums in front of a global audience.
That was Hingis…little did she care, or may be little did she knew at that age—but neither of those is any less endearing to someone who loves personalities. I have been there, we all have I'm sure, but cameras from around the world don’t monitor our meltdowns…and televise it to masses.
A hiatus due to foot problems that ended up with her shoe company being sued, in combination with the emerging power-play of Davenport and Williams sisters expedited her semi-retirement. The long winding road at the top came to a temporary standstill in 2002, at the age of 22.
After a hiatus of four years, she would come back for a brief stint in 2006. Her game was still radiated elegance, and the results were not disappointing either, for she would reach the quarters at both the Australian and the French.
But she still got mauled by the power play bound "Big Babes’"of tennis. She reached an impressive No. 6 which is by no means an ordinary accomplishment. The subtlety between someone like Hingis and others lies below.
When you are a Federer, Roddick, Hingis, Hewitt or Davenport, you’ve been to the pinnacle of the sport and you’ve tasted the slam champagne. Once you’ve experienced that, as impressive as anything else might be…it’s never quite the same, never the same adrenaline rush.
It almost becomes a binary option—a slam win and No. 1 ranking—or everything else is pretty much the same. Hingis was not going to be satiated with semis and quarters appearances, when she had gone all the way before. I think even she surprised herself, to say "I’ll take whatever comes along my way" is much easier said, than done.
She floated along the tour at No. 6 with an odd victory or two over the "Big Babes"… then the news hit the stands eventually that she had tested positive for cocaine during Wimbledon 2007. It is beyond the scope of this article to discuss the moralistic and legal facets of the issue, and neither am I condoning it.
With that on the record and having seen Hingis for more than a decade, I am taking the unsafe option of actually going with the athlete once, in terms of taking her word on it. Sure, no athlete (Marion Jones) is ever prepared to accept the grave error in judgment, vehemently maintaining "innocence".
Let’s just take a step back and think about the cornerstones of her game. It was not stamina or power, it was ingenuity and court sense, little does she need a performance enhancing drug (on top of the 11 year clean slate on the tour), and cocaine is not one either.
I think the error in judgment might have occurred by using it (maybe at a mate’s b-day party before Wimbledon in the Swiss mountains…maybe, I am sure some of us have been there) as a recreational drug, and that is still not condonable. Those drugs take a surprisingly long time to entirely get flushed out of the physical system.
But the true blue tennis aficionados, at some level will agree with me on this one. It was indeed an error in judgment, but more recreational than performance enhancing.
Hingis as she always had, copped it on the chin, quietly stated that she did not take cocaine…and left the stage through the back door without any inclination to drag the case out for a long time to come. Succinct, to the point, and her way—vintage Hingis.
She had indicated that she desired to move on to other things in life, an ironic, unfortunate way to end such an illustrious career…but she still bowed out with any form of dignity that she could salvage at the end of the day
With the end of 2008 beckoning, I wanted to reflect on the enormous impact on the game that she had, in terms of bringing a refreshing novel brand of a game based on versatility and unparalleled elegance, and she did all that with a "Devil May Care" attitude and above all…a smile.
A smile that adorned and graced the tennis courts from Melbourne, Paris, London to New York…a smile I would miss for a long time to come.
Yeah, a smile I would miss for a long time to come, for this was a walk down memory lane. That’s Martina Hingis in a nutshell—Jekyll and Hyde…all rolled into one.
Good Luck Marty!
A great sum up of Hingis's career.
I always enjoy pieces written by actual fans. It highlights virtually all of the reasons why I became a fan of hers back in the 90's (and why I still continue to admire her years later).
Just a small correction Hingis only has 5 total Grand Slam titles not 6.
No comments:
Post a Comment