ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, January 26, 1997 TAG: 9701270119
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-1 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBIN FINN N.Y. Times News Service
Although a name does not a champion make, the die was cast on this champion's destiny when her parents named their only daughter after Martina Navratilova, the greatest player to emerge from their native Czechoslovakia.
On Saturday, on a sun-drenched center court a continent away from her European roots, 16-year-old Martina Hingis emphatically claimed that destiny. And then some.
On a hot Saturday in Melbourne, Hingis became the youngest Grand Slam champion in more than a century by shellacking another former sensation, 22-year-old Mary Pierce, 6-2, 6-2, in the women's final of the Australian Open.
With that convincing victory, Hingis, who turned professional at 14, became the youngest women's champion of the Open era, and the youngest in tennis history since 15-year-old Lottie Dodd won Wimbledon in 1887. This Australian Open was already Hingis' 33rd professional tournament, and it earned her a second title in as many events in 1997.
Hingis also teamed with Natasha Zvereva to win the doubles title Friday. The last woman to claim both the women's singles and women's doubles championships at the Australian Open was Navratilova, in 1985.
Martina Hingis was born in Kosice, a town in what is now called Slovakia, where her father, Karol, coached and managed a tennis club. Her mother, Melanie Zogg, was a former player of little renown, but their ambitions for their only daughter were great. The parents put a racket in Hingis' hands when she was 2, and she entered her first tournament at 4.
``I lost, 12-0,'' a smiling Hingis recalled after Saturday's triumph, ``but I think I had a couple of break points.''
Hingis' parents separated when she was 7, and she and her mother, who has since married and divorced a Swiss businessman, relocated to Trubbach, Switzerland, where the prodigy's tennis education continued under the watchful eye of her mother.
At 12, Hingis became the youngest junior French Open champion in the history of that event, a title she won again at 13, when she also added the junior titles at Wimbledon and the U.S. Open.
Although age eligibility rules now prohibit 14-year-old girls from playing on the Corel WTA Tour, Hingis was allowed on the professional circuit just before the rule was imposed.
She played her first professional event in Zurich, Switzerland, in 1994, two weeks after her 14th birthday. But hampered by a weak serve, she did not immediately find success among her elders. She did, however, instantly distinguish herself with her consummate poise, a trait that seemed unnatural in a teen-ager barely 5 feet tall with braces on her teeth and pigtails in her hair.
Despite her being named after Navratilova, whose net-rushing style has yet to be replicated, Hingis' on-court demeanor was reminiscent of Navratilova's archrival, Chris Evert. Like Evert, Hingis initially tended to rule from the baseline with a combination of deep, accurate groundstrokes and an icy resolve to never miss a ball.
In the last six months, Hingis shored up her serve, improved her volley and commenced the campaign that brought her Saturday's historic victory.
Hingis definitely did not, said Pierce, play like a rookie anymore, and her innate ability not just to place but to anticipate the ball rendered her unstoppable in Melbourne.
In her first full year as a professional, 1995, Hingis failed to win a tournament, but she began 1996 by reaching the quarterfinals of the Australian Open and grew progressively stronger as the season unfolded.
She won her first title on Oct. 16, 1996, went to the third round at the French Open, and after being put out of Wimbledon in the fourth round by the eventual champion, Steffi Graf, Hingis settled for the doubles crown - her first Grand Slam title of the three she now holds - there alongside veteran Helena Sukova.
In the Atlanta Olympics, she reached the second round, sufficiently distracted by the occasion to not win a medal.
Hingis had an almost perfect season after the Olympics. From August on, she lost to only two players, the top-ranked Graf and Jana Novotna, another Czech-born player with all-court expertise.
Hingis had her best Grand Slam singles result to date at the U.S. Open, where Graf defeated her, with difficulty, in the semifinals. Hingis later won the Oakland title in November, and then fell to Graf in a riveting five-set final of the Chase Championships, a match the teen-ager gamely completed despite being overcome by cramps in the final set.
Hingis began 1997 by defeating Jennifer Capriati, who is in the midst of a comeback at 20, in the finals at Sydney. Her triumphant Australian Open campaign took her to a career-high ranking of second in the world.
LENGTH: Medium: 89 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Martina Hingis is the youngest women's Grand Slamby CNBchampion in the modern era. color.