"The Greates Tennis Matches of the Twentieth Century"
Steve Flink

MARTINA HINGIS VS. STEFFI GRAF

FRENCH OPEN, FINAL, JUNE 5, 1999

Before a vibrant partisan crowd at Roland Garros, Hingis wanted to win
the only major title to elude her grasp, while Graf resolutely sought
another major crown in the twilight of her career.

PROLOGUE

                Martina Hingis headed into her 1999 Roland Garros title battle with
Steffi Graf propelled by a seemingly unshakable confidence. She would
not turn nineteen until three months later, but already she had
recorded five Grand Slam tournament victories. Having taken her third
consecutive Australian Open five months earlier, the Swiss teenager
had established herself as a player who was always primed for the
occasion. The last time she had not been at least a semifinalist in a
major tournament was at Wimbledon in 1996. After relinquishing her No.
1 world ranking to Lindsay Davenport for the 1998 season, she had
taken back her place at the top in the early months of 1999. But as
she looked forward to her confrontation with Graf on the clay in
Paris, Hingis was driven by a larger goal. Roland Garros was the lone
"Big Four" tournament she had not captured. She wanted it
passionately, was fully committed to taking it and firmly believed it
was her turn to claim the crown.

                Graf's inner view was radically different. She came to Paris
expecting very little from herself. She had not won a major event
since the U.S. Open of 1996. In 1997, her season came to an end after
a quarterfinal loss at Roland Garros. Knee surgery was performed on
the German immediately following that tournament. Not until Wimbledon
in 1998 did Graf compete again in a Grand Slam event. She had lost in
the third round there, and bowed in the round of sixteen later that
summer at the U.S. Open after securing a morale-boosting title in New
Haven the week before.

                At the close of 1998, Graf played brilliantly in winning two
tournaments and reaching the semifinals of the season-ending Chase
Championships at New York's Madison Square Garden. The resurgence was
brief. Ort her way to Roland Garros in 1999, the German's instability
surfaced repeatedly. She did not win a tournament. She squandered a
4-2 final-set lead against the surging Serena Williams in the
championship match at Indian Wells. She was thoroughly blasted off the
court by the advancing Venus Williams at Key Biscayne. Her clay court
results en route to Paris were not encouraging.

                Graf hoped she could win some matches in Paris to toughen herself up
for Wimbledon and the grass courts that suited her game much better.
And yet, seeded only sixth, she was surprisingly sharp and solid over
the early rounds. Her first major test was against the precocious
Russian, Anna Kournikova, in the round of sixteen. Kournikova had cut
down Graf on the grass courts of Eastbourne the previous year. When
her big-hitting game was clicking, she had shown just how formidable
she could be. In this encounter, Graf recouped from 5-6, 0-40 in the
second set to prevail, 6-3, 7-6. In the quarterfinals, she stopped the
second-seed Davenport in three sets. That set the stage for a
semifinal against the No. 3 seed Seles. Graf was apprehensive at the
outset, but came on strong for a three-set victory and a well-deserved
place in another major final.

                Hingis made her way to the final without a hitch. She did not
concede a set defeating defending champion Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of
Spain in a one-sided, straight-set semifinal. In that match, Hingis
had displayed the full range of her talent. She made some surprise
serve-and-volley attacks, catching the Spaniard off guard. She used
the drop shot judiciously. She improvised with the lob volley. She
used every inch of the court to her advantage. Hingis was close to the
top of her game, and was convinced she was going to win the tournament
no matter whom she faced in the final. She had completed her semifinal
triumph before Graf and Seles stepped on court. Hingis was asked about
which woman she would rather play for the title. She did not hesitate.
She said she preferred to play Steffi Graf in the final.

THE MATCH

                Graf held a 6-2 career edge in her series of matches against Hingis,
but that statistic was misleading. Most of those wins had been posted
when Hingis was developing her game, and Graf was the best player in
the world. Nevertheless, in the year leading up to this clash at
Roland Garros, the two champions had each won once against the other.
These two matches were played indoors. Graf still had the weapons and
the energy to stand her ground against a player eleven years her
junior. Be that as it may, the slow court conditions in Paris were
much in Hingis's favor. Graf would have more difficulty concluding
points with penetrating forehands. She would have to work harder to
earn her keep. She would need to make certain her sliced backhand was
working at full efficiency. She would need to serve with sting and
authority.

                Anything less than a top-of-the-line performance from Graf would
cause the German to fall short of victory. Hingis had not done herself
justice at Roland Garros the previous two years, sliding indifferently
to a final-round loss against the Croatian, Iva Majoli, in 1997,
falling almost petulantly in straight sets against Seles in the 1998
semifinals. Despite those failures, there was no logical way to
explain why she had not succeeded on a surface that suits her style so
well.

                At the start of her duel with Graf, Hingis seemed to be saying,
"This is my time. This is MY toumament. No one - not even Steffi - is
going to stop me." The eighteen-year-old was precise and assertive as
she broke Graf in the opening game. The Swiss player reached 15-40 by
driving her two-handed backhand return deep crosscourt and following
it into the net. Graf anxiously sliced her passing shot wide. The
German recovered to deuce but hurt her cause with consecutive backhand
unforced errors to drop that game. Hingis confidently held at love for
2-0, closing that game with a flourish. A forehand placement lifted
her to 40-0, and then she confounded Graf by following her serve to
the net punching a backhand volley into an open court.

                When Graf drifted to 15-40 with a double fault in the third game,
her chances appeared bleak. lt was here, however, that the
twentynine-year-old realized she had to go for bigger and bolder shots
and thus take Hingis out of her rhythm. Steffi released a piercing
reverse crosscourt forehand that Hingis could not manage with a
one-handed backhand stab. The German took charge of the next point,
came in forcefully, and put away a smash. It was deuce. Two more
scintillating forehands enabled Graf to hold on for 1-2. She broke
Hingis easily in the following game, then had three game points for
3-2. Graf sorely needed to maintain her momentum and hold her serve,
but Hingis was not yielding. The Swiss girl hit winners on two of
Graf's three game points, and provoked a backhand mistake from Steffi
on the other. Another errant backhand from Graf - this one unforced -
cost her the game. Hingis was back in front, leading 3-2.

                Martina's mind was not muddled. She was ably breaking down Graf's
weaker backhand wing, and preventing Steffi from getting enough
opportunities to produce punishing forehands. Hingis took the next two
games, breaking Graf again for 5-2. Steffi double-faulted for 15-40,
saved the first break point with a potent serve and forehand
combination, but surrendered the seventh game when Hingis sliced a
forehand that dipped at the German's feet. Graf attempted to
halfvolley into an empty court but could not bring it off.

                Hingis served for the set at 5-2. She reached 30-30 with an
impeccable topspin forehand down the line winner off a short sliced
backhand from Graf. Had Hingis applied herself and raised her
intensity, she would have closed out the set with relative ease.
Instead, she became careless and complacent. An ill-advised drop shot
from the Swiss girl served as an invitation for Graf to explode. The
German did just that driving her backhand with topspin down the line.
The shot was out of her opponent's reach. Graf broke with a booming
forehand crosscourt that Hingis could not control. Reprieved, Graf
held at love for 4-5. Her form had been fluctuating, but she kept her
resolve.

                Hingis, meanwhile, was in a bind. She knew she should already have
sealed the set. Serving for it a second time at 5-4, the teenager was
strikingly vulnerable. She rolled a two-hander into the net, then
double-faulted for 0-30. Then Hingis gathered herself, drove a
forehand deep into the corner, and moved in swiftly for a drive volley
winner. She proceeded to 40-30 and her first set point. Graf sliced a
backhand that clipped the net cord, and fell over. It was deuce.
Hingis responded remarkably well, defending skillfully from the
backcourt, then stepping in with authority to crack a backhand winner.

                Graf was not giving in. Her forehand approach was too powerful and
accurate for Hingis, who missed a backhand pass. It was deuce for the
second time. Martina swung her serve wide with a slice to Steffi's
forehand, opening up the court for a backhand crosscourt winner. Set
point to Hingis for the third time. Graf retaliated once more with
all-out aggression. She drove her reverse crosscourt forehand return
with great pace. It was untouchable. The score was deuce for the third
time. The German seemed poised to make an effective backhand return,
only to slice it over the baseline, giving Hingis a fourth set point.
Martina whipped a forehand crosscourt. Graf was made to play a running
forehand at full stretch. She missed. Set to Hingis, 6-4.

                Having withstood the challenge of Graf's comeback late in the first
set Hingis started the second set warily protecting her territory. The
opening game was hard fought by both players, with Graf determined to
establish an early lead, and Hingis equally determined to stay ahead.
There were three deuces and Hingis needed three break points before
she got the early advantage. Martina had altered her game plan,
working persistently to pull Graf wide on the forehand side, taking
Steffi out of her comfort zone. Rather than allow Graf to control the
court with her inside-out forehand, Hingis shrewdly kept Graf on the
run with a calculated combination of sharply angled crosscourt
forehands, and well disguised backhands down the line.

                When Hingis held at the cost of only one point for 2-0, she seemed
safely back in command, closing in rapidly on the title she coveted
above all others. But on the first point of the third garne, she lost
her bearings. All along, the crowd had been fervently behind her
opponent, cheering with wild enthusiasm for Graf, giving Hingis little
more than reserved rounds of applause. In a dangerous lapse in
judgment, Hingis changed the emotional texture of the match
irreversibly. When her forehand return of serve was called out Hingis
irritably questioned the call. Umpire Anne Lasserre got out of her
chair and conferred with the linesman, then reaffirmed the decision.

                Hingis was not willing to move on and play the next point. She
walked around to Graf's side of the court to check the mark herself, a
blatant violation of the rules. Lasserre stood by her decision. The
Roland Garros capacity crowd of sixteen thousand began chanting,
"Steffi, Steffi, Steffi." Hingis sat down on her chair, waiting for
WTA supervisor Georgina Clark to arrive. The crowd was booing Hingis,
frustrated by the delay. Hingis spoke with Clark. Hingis - who had
earlier been given a warning for racket abuse - was now assessed a
point penalty. Graf was rewarded with a 30-0 lead. The German held for
1-2 to the crowd's delight but Hingis came through with a pinpoint
forehand crosscourt passing shot to reach 3-1.

                Despite a 40-15 edge at 3-2, Hingis did not hold. Ort her second
game point, she outsmarted herself with an ineffectual
serve-and-volley tactic. Graf read the plan early and responded with a
backhand return winner. With Hingis at game point for the third time,
the two competitors waged a superb battle of crosscourt forehands.
Graf prevailed in that hard-hitting exchange as Hingis faltered in the
end. Another damaging crosscourt forehand brought Graf to 3-3. Steffi
saved a break point on her way to 4-3. She sensed a chance to take
control of the match. So, too, did the animated crowd.

                With Hingis serving at 3-4, 30-40, she saved a break point for
deuce. Then both players produced the best exchange of the match. In
the middle of this tense exchange, Graf angled a drop shot crosscourt
off her backhand. The Swiss star answered with a backhand angled
sharply crosscourt, which Graf handled with a deep backhand chip down
the line, forcing Hingis again to the baseline. Hingis put up a high
defensive lob off the forehand, and Graf replied with an indecisive
overhead. Hingis had time to set up a strong two-handed response
crosscourt. Steffi was stretched low and wide at the net on her
backhand side. She tried a drop volley crosscourt, but Hingis read it
early. She scampered in swiftly for a backhand down the line. Graf was
trapped. She could not make a volley. All she could do was chase the
shot down. The ball was almost behind her, but Graf managed to make a
wonderful lob over the incoming Hingis. She lofted it crosscourt deep
into the corner, and Hingis was hard-pressed to even get there. She
chased it down and managed a high defensive lob. Graf let the ball
bounce. Steffi was standing well inside the service line and in the
alley. She picked her target, swung hard, and smashed the ball
straight into the net. The crowd rumbled a collective moan. Hingis
smiled at her good fortune. Graf held her head in despair, astounded
that she had lost the point.

Hingis held on for 4-4, then broke a still dazed Graf for 5-4. Hingis
lost only the first point of the ninth game, then swept the next four.
She got that break with one of her patented backhand down the line
placements. Hingis was only a single game away from the championship.
She served for the match in the tenth game. On the first point, Hingis
reached 15-0 when her forehand skidded off the baseline and provoked
an error from her opponent. The eighteen-year-old was three points
from her goal. Then she missed a routine backhand, driving the ball
over the baseline, squealing in disappointment over her unnecessary
error. It was 15-15. Graf got to 15-30 with a topspin backhand
crosscourt pass, then delivered another thundering forehand, rushing
Hingis into a backhand error with the force of her shot. When Graf
netted a backhand slice, Hingis was back to 30-40, but the teenager's
shot selection on the next point revealed that she was both tense and
tired. She attempted a backhand drop shot from just behind the
baseline. The ball did not clear the net. Graf was level at 5-5.

                Graf was revitalized. Hingis was rattled. The fans were galvanized
behind the German. Graf took the next two games, sweeping eight of
nine points. Graf had the set 7-5. She also had the momentum and the
crowd. Graf held quickly for a 1-0 third-set lead, and then Hingis
left the court for a bathroom break. Graf followed her rival off the
court but returned long before Hingis. As Graf sat at courtside, the
crowd broke into a spontaneous "wave," and Graf joined in the fun. The
chants of "Steffi, Steffi, Steffi" echoed around Roland Garros
stadium. When Hingis returned with a clean, white outfit, the jeers
increased in volume.

                With Hingis seemingly devoid of energy, and despondent about her
lost opportunity, Graf glided to 3-0 in the third. The German had
collected six games in a row, winning twenty-four of twenty-nine
points in that span. It was apparent that her Swiss adversary was not
only depleted but demoralized. She could not comprehend what had
happened to her. She had invested nearly all of her resources in an
effort to finish the job in two sets. Fighting to salvage her cause in
a third set was a task she did not want. Nevertheless, she had too
much pride and professionalism to acquiesce. She summoned her waning
resolve, moving well and striking the ball with vigor.

                When Hingis held her serve for 1-3, the audience responded with a
combination of boos and cheers. On the first point of the following
game, Graf double-faulted. Hingis pounced. A running forehand winner
off a drop shot from Graf made it 15-30. Graf sliced a backhand wide
under pressure for 15-40, and Hingis took the next point with another
sparkling forehand out of Graf's reach. Hingis had broken back for
2-3. She was leaving her disappointments behind her and getting on
with her business.

                The next game was pivotal. Hingis slumped to 15-40, but then took
the following three points. She was a point away from 3-3. Her shots
were flowing again. Her concentration and confidence were reviving.
Graf realized she had to raise her intensity and start dictating the
tempo again. She moved around her backhand and hit a scorching
forehand, sending that shot deep to the Hingis backhand. Martina was
on her heels. She was stretched wide, forced to play the stroke with
one hand. It was off the mark. The score was deuce. Graf quickly
advanced to another break point. She then took a high ball off her
backhand and knifed it crosscourt short to Hingis's backhand. Martina
was rushed. She could not deal with the low ball, netting a backhand.
Graf was at 4-2.

                The match was essentially over. Graf and Hingis both knew it. The
crowd sensed it. Graf connected with three out of four first serves to
hold at love for 5-2. As she walked to her chair at courtside for the
changeover, the crowd resumed chanting, "Steffi, Steffi, Steffi."

                In the eighth game of the third set Hingis was a forlorn figure,
baffled and frustrated by the crowd's bias against her, infuriated by
her earlier wasted chances. She drifted to 2-5, 30-40, match point
down. Astounding the crowd and her opponent, Hingis released an
underhand serve. She confounded Graf completely with the surprise
tactic. Furthermore, she put heavy sidespin on that serve. Graf lunged
to make the return, and could only produce a weak shot. She had been
pulled so far forward that she had no alternative but to approach the
net behind her return. Hingis had no trouble hitting a backhand
passing shot down the line that Graf could not cope with.

                The hostile fans booed Hingis vociferously believing, as many
critics in the media did, that an underhand serve was a shameful
display of bad sportsmanship. Graf, however, did not agree. She would
say after the match, "I thought it was a hell of a serve. I mean, for
her to do it for the first time at match point down was very good. I
had the feeling the crowd thought it was an insult. Obviously it shook
things up a bit and she won the point. lt was a good decision from her
point of view."

                Hingis got to game point, then missed an awkward low forehand when
Graf hit another biting slice backhand. Graf moved to match point for
the second time with an unintentional backhand drop shot winner,
acknowledging her luck with a wave of the hand toward Hingis. For the
second time, Hingis tried the underhand serve, but this one was out.
With the fans now baiting Hingis with loud disapproval, the Swiss girl
approached the chair umpire, asking for quiet. Graf then walked up to
the umpire herself, saying, "Let's play tennis." Order was restored.
Hingis produced a conventional second serve. The two players had a
brief baseline exchange. Graf sent her last emphatic forehand deep to
the Hingis backhand, and Martina meekly netted her response in defeat.

                Graf had come through, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, to claim her sixth French Open
title, only one shy of the record held by Chris Evert. Hingis had lost
her bid for a first championship at Roland Garros. The tennis had been
exciting, the theater even better. lt was a watershed event for both
competitors.

                When it was over, a tearful Hingis left the court for the locker
room, booed by the sixteen thousand fans in the stadium. They
continued to shower Graf with affectionate applause, saluting her
spirit and fortitude, recognizing her enduring stature in the history
of women's tennis. A few minutes later, Hingis returned to the court
for the presentation ceremony, walking arm in arm with her mother (and
coach) Melanie Molitor. Hingis was fighting in vain to hold back her
tears, consoled by her mother. It was the most poignant moment in a
long afternoon.

                At the post-match ceremony, Hingis regained some of her composure,
speaking in French, congratulating Graf and recognizing her rival as a
"great champion." The crowd applauded her warmly, appreciating her
grace under the pressure of a shocking defeat. When Graf stepped up to
the microphone, she was presented with the trophy by five-time former
French champion, Margaret Court of Australia. It seemed particularly
appropriate because Court remained the only woman to win more major
championships than Graf, by the slim margin of twenty-four to
twenty-two.

                "I feel French," was Graf's heartfelt opening remark. "I've played
all over the world, but I've never had a crowd like this one ever!"

                Later in her press conference, Graf said, "This is the biggest win
I've ever had, for sure. I've had a lot of unexpected ones. I have to
admit that. But this is by far the most unexpected. I really came into
this tournament without belief. This has been incredible. This was one
of the craziest matches ever. It had everything."

                Hingis was asked if there was one key reason why she lost the match.
She replied, "There were a few things. I was not fighting against
Steffi only, but the whole crowd, the referee, the line calls. It was
not always the way I would like it to be. But if you're better, you
win anyway."

                Hingis had made many miscalculations. Her actions were inflammatory,
inviting the crowd to treat her with increasing disapproval.
Nevertheless, the audience was willing to tolerate Graf's excessive
questioning of line calls. Umpire Anne Lasserre lost control of the
match and did not exert her authority with any conviction. She got
down from her chair too many times to check marks, and should have set
a tougher tone.

                In the end, the controversy and the unpredictability added to the
drama of the occasion, and made it a more memorable match. Both
players had given powerful performances and played inspired tennis.
Graf, fired by the crowd, was the victor because of her immense will
and her ability to draw upon the resources of past triumphs.

EPILOGUE

                Two weeks later, Hingis and Graf came into Wimbledon as the top two
seeds. The tennis world eagerly awaited another dramatic meeting
between the two champions. But Hingis had still not recovered from her
wrenching loss in Paris. And something had gone fundamentally wrong in
her professional and personal relationship with her mother. In her
opening-round match, Hingis was beaten soundly by an Australian
qualifier named Jelena Ducic, a sixteen-year-old ranked No. 129 in the
world. Ducic upended the 1997 titlist 6-2, 6-0. The Australian played
inspired and inventive tennis, overpowering Hingis from the backcourt,
looking uninhibited from start to finish. It lasted fifty-four
minutes. Hingis gave a desultory display.

                In the press conference following the match, Hingis revealed that
her mother had not been with her at the match and had gone home. She
was bombarded with questions by reporters who wanted to know why
Melanie Molitor had not been by her side for the first time at a major
tournament. Hingis said that she and her mother had mutually decided
they needed time apart. She explained, "With this tournament, my
mother and I decided to have a little bit of distance from each other
to work a little more on our private lives. We'll see how it goes in
the future."

                As she approached her nineteenth birthday in September, Hingis was
enduring the inevitable growing pains, coming to terms with a world
where nearly everyone expected and almost demanded unbridled success
from her year in and year out. Inevitably, Hingis would remain a
player of considerable importance in the early stages of the
twenty-first century. Graf would not. The thirty-year-old German
played her ninth Wimbledon final in 1999, scoring an impressive,
three-set triumph over the gifted athlete, Venus Williams, along the
way. in the final, however, Graf was unable to repeat what she had
done in Paris. She lost to Lindsay Davenport of the United States,
6-4, 7-5. Her chance for an eighth singles title on Centre Court was
not realized.

                Graf announced her retirement in late summer, withdrawing from the
U.S. Open. Her career was winding down after eighteen years as a
professional. She was the only player - male or female - to win every
major championship at least four times.

                Graf departed at the right moment, when she was still a great
player, but no longer invincible. She had overcome a multitude of
injuries, illnesses, and personal stress to become a champion of the
highest order. Graf had begun her career competing against Evert and
Navratilova. She ended her tenure in the era of Hingis and the
Williams sisters. Through it all, she reflected the dignity and
competitive resolve that has marked the highest standards of tennis in
the twentieth century.