The Lady in Red, aka Martina Hingis, had a very solid run at Surfer's Paradise (don’t you just love that for the name of a town?) before she lost to Flavia Pennetta in the Australian Women's Hardcourts. Yesterday, she met Justine Henin-Hardenne—the first of the Big Cats that’s she’s encountered in her comeback—in the Sydney International.
Hingis lost (details here), so let’s grade our favorite little sex kitten–cum–hellcat before she begins the quest to reach a seventh consecutive Australian Open final (she won three in a row and lost three in row, ending the year she retired—with a 44-5 Aussie Open career record—in 2002).
TennisWorld reader Jerome recently posted this as part of a comment, and it’s a good place to begin:
This is a great point, underscored by the fact that Hingis pulled out of the doubles in Surfer’s Paradise after her singles loss. My feeling is that there’s a larger, underlying issue beneath what appears to be a serious miscalculation on Hingis’s part, albeit a subtle one that’s not likely to show up in any first-serve speed or break-point conversion rate charts. How well has Hingis thought out her game plan?
On the face of it, it appears that she put in the time to get back into shape, then leapt back into the fray as if she had never left. That would suggest there may be a form of denial in play here. It points to a broader and deeper issue concerning the depth and nature of her committment.
To compete at the highest level requires monklike commitment, and you have to wonder if Hingis is emotionally prepared to make it. The physical part, ironically, is not that tough—all you have to do is make sure you get yourself to the practice court and gym and follow the routine.
The tougher part, I think, is going to be cultivating and sustaining the day-in, day-out, single-minded focus. Hingis lived a lot, for a top player, during her career. She evidently lived even more in the past three years, while decompressing from life as a champion. I wonder how she’s going to forget how to live now—because becoming a single-minded warrior is essentially and necessarily an act of regression for a personality like Hingis’.
Or, put it this way: How’s she going to resist going out for dinner with friends on a Tuesday night, and say no to that second or third glass of wine? To me, that’s a huge question, for paying the price is not just about running wind sprints uphill on Christmas Day, or sequestering yourself for three solid days as you advance to the late stages of a Grand Slam event. The real price the top players pay is giving so much of what’s fun, for most people, about that distraction called everyday life—the life Hingis has led for the past three years. The life for which she's had a huge appetite—and talent.
In that regard, we won’t have any real answers until Hingis has been involved in, oh, 8 or 10 or 15 “second-match on Court 1” Tuesday afternoon match-ups.
Meanwhile, here’s a fun Hingis piece from the Australian. There’s something here for everyone, folks! A valiant attempt to fan the flames of controversy glowing like coals wherever Hingis goes, some stuff on Kim Clijsters' reaction to Lleyton Hewitt’s having had a child (The Baby that Might Have Been Mine!), underprivileged children . . .
Oh, and how about that Henin-Hardenne money quote from the BBC story that I link to up above: "I had a little bit of trouble on the return. It's never been easy for me to return against a player who's serving pretty slowly.”
Rrrrreeeeeoooowwwww . . .
Saucer of milk on Court 1, please!
It’s great to have Hingis back to enliven things, inn’it?