Place an Ad Calendars Classified Forums Sports Weather

sptimes.com Text-only News sections Arts & Entertainment AP The Wire Business Citrus County Columnists Floridian Hernando County Hillsborough Letters Movies Neighborhood Times News Update North Pinellas North of Tampa Obituaries Opinion Pasco County South Pinellas Sports State Tampa Bay TV Times World & Nation  Find your local news section Weekly sections Brandon Times City Times Homes Outdoors Perspective Personal Tech Taste Travel Weekend Xpress Special Sections Arena football Buccaneers College football Devil Rays Lightning Police reports Schools Seniority Subscriber Services Subscribe Renew Help Advertise Place an ad In print Online Market Info Join Us Internships Scholarships Times Jobs Contact us

Hingis overcomes Seles

The third seed advances to her sixth straight Australian Open final.

Compiled from Times wires
© St. Petersburg Times
published January 24, 2002

MELBOURNE, Australia -- Three-time champion Martina Hingis beat Monica Seles 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 today to advanced to her sixth straight Australian Open final.

Hingis overcame Seles' power with her agility, often grunting in an effort to reach Seles' blasts and sometimes screeching when she came up short.

Hingis faces the winner of today's semifinal between defending champion Jennifer Capriati and fourth-seeded Kim Clijsters.

"I believe in it again now, and it's a great feeling," said Hingis, whose most recent Grand Slam title was the 1999 Australian Open.

Seles, a four-time Australian winner, used her power to prevail in the first set. She saved two break points in a game that lasted 10 minutes and included five deuces for 3-1, and saved another two for 4-4. She broke Hingis in the first and ninth games, and was broken in the sixth.

For the rest of the match, Hingis relied on her volley, waiting for Seles to miss or for an opportunity to put the ball away.

Seles had 40 unforced errors, and Hingis had 12. Seles led in groundstroke winners 36-20.

Hingis raced to a 5-1 lead in the final set but couldn't serve out the match at 5-2 as Seles starting hitting winners again.

Seles, who has nine Grand Slam tournament titles but none since the 1996 Australian, held serve for 4-5 but Hingis won in the next game when Seles, attacking the net, hit a crosscourt backhand wide.

"I had to lift something," Hingis said. "There was nothing I could do at the beginning. She was hitting winners. I was trying to make her move as much as I could and wait for my chances."

On the men's side Wednesday, Tommy Haas beat former No. 1 Marcelo Rios 7-6 (7-2), 6-4, 6-7 (7-2), 7-6 (7-5) in a quarterfinal. He saved break points in five early games and rallied from one service break down in two sets.

In two previous rounds Haas rebounded from 2-1 deficits in sets to beat Todd Martin and 11th-seeded Roger Federer.

On Friday, Haas, the seventh-seeded German, faces ninth-seeded Safin, the 2000 U.S. Open champion.

Safin, who squelched a comeback bid by Pete Sampras in the fourth round, needed 28 minutes to advance to the semifinals when Wayne Ferreira quit with an abdominal strain. Safin was leading 5-2.

In the other semifinal, No. 16 Thomas Johansson plays No. 26 Jiri Novak today. Both are in their first Grand Slam semifinal.

As for Haas, he said he will have to serve well again and make Safin play a lot of balls.

"He's a very powerful player, a young kid who is very hungry to play, already won a Grand Slam, he's been No. 1 in the world," Haas said. "He played a great match against Pete, and it's going to be tough."

Haas also reached the Australian Open semifinals in 1999 but lost to Yevgeny Kafelnikov. In other Grand Slam events he has yet to pass the fourth round.

Rios might have been the semifinalist, Haas said, if he had done better on his break point chances.

"I seemed to save them pretty well with my serves," Haas said. "I was also quite frustrated when he actually broke me, so I seemed to play a really good game right after that to get the break back, which gave me confidence."

Rios was serving for the first set at 5-4 when Haas broke him for the first time.

"If I win that first set, it's a totally different match," Rios said. "And I was a break up in the fourth, and I couldn't keep winning my serve. He just played better in the important moments."

Haas gained key points against Rios' serve in the first-set tiebreaker on a double fault by the Chilean and a backhand winner, going ahead 5-2. Another backhand winner gave him the only service break of the second set.

In the final tiebreaker, a wide, low backhand gave him a 5-1 lead, and his 22nd ace, at 127 mph, made it 6-2. Three points later, Rios netted a backhand to end the 3-hour, 17-minute match.

Rios, who was No. 1 in 1998, the same year he was Australian runner-up, hit some dazzling winners and some surprising misses.

Rios has been troubled by injuries and had surgery on his left ankle in June, the same month his daughter Constanza was born.

The baby and Rios' wife, Juliana, were in the stands at the start of the match but left when Constanza began crying. Haas said he heard the baby during a long rally, "and then she was quite nice to leave, so it was okay."

Safin said that against Haas, "you just stay and fight and run and take your chances."

The 21-year-old Safin had back problems early last year and then "I couldn't find my game at all."

"It's depressing, it's difficult, and you have to spend a lot of hours just practicing, practicing. It doesn't come, it doesn't come," he said. But, "It seems like it's coming right now. I never gave up."

THANKS, COACH: Safin credits Mats Wilander for his success at this tournament. "He worked with me last year, and I hope that we are going to work this year also," said Safin, who won the 2000 U.S. Open. "He gives you a lot of confidence, so it makes your life easier." Wilander won seven Grand Slams in the 1980s.

OUCH: Ferreira has a history of injuries at Grand Slam tournaments. "It's very disappointing," he said of quitting against Safin with the abdominal strain. "When I was warming up this morning I felt a little twinge, nothing too serious. When I came out in the first game and in the third or fourth point, I hit my serve and really felt it pulling and it gradually got worse." In Melbourne last year, the South African right-hander broke the middle finger on his left hand in warmups before the start of a loss to Andreas Vinciguerra.

© 2006 • All Rights Reserved • St. Petersburg Times
490 First Avenue South • St. Petersburg, FL 33701 • 727-893-8111

Contact the Times | Privacy Policy
Standard of Accuracy | Terms, Conditions & Copyright