Martina Hingis’ hopes for another US Open Tennis Title Denied

NEW YORK — Five-time Grand Slam singles champion Martina Hingis found herself red-eyed and uncertain about the next step of her comeback last night at the US Open after a disappointing second round loss to France’s Virginie Razzano in straight sets 6-2, 6-4.

For the first time in her distinguished twelve year career on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour, Hingis was dumped out in the second round of action at Flushing Meadows. Her earliest exit record used to be her US Open debut - the fourth round in 1997 - and her tough loss in 2002 to Monica Seles, which was also in the fourth round.

The scene in her post-match press conference is difficult to describe. Not only did Hingis not envision herself doing an exit interview so soon, but the rest of the media was not prepared for a straight sets loss to Virginie Razzano, a player who is currently ranked out of the top 100, so most of them were covering Andre Agassi’s night match. There were only about ten reporters, including myself, in the interview after the match, and about half of those were waiting to field questions to Martina in Swiss-German.

Less than thirty minutes after she walked off the court in disbelief, a despondent, but resigned Martina Hingis walked through the door for her post-match presser. She immediately expressed relief at only seeing a few reporters, but then settled down for the inevitable questions of why, what happened, and was there any rhyme or reason behind her loss. Immediately after she answered the questions of what when wrong tonight against Razzano, I was able to ask the question that has been preying on not only my mind, but the minds of fans and journalists around the world; what’s the next step on her comeback.

A clearly emotional Hingis just looked at me and replied in the honest and transparent way that we have grown to love from the Swiss Miss, “Well, I mean, uhm, that’s a good question. I mean, I can’t answer that right now to you. I mean, we’ll see.” I immediately followed it up with a question on whether or not she is aiming for a spot in the season-ending Championships in Madrid, to which Hingis replied, “Oh yeah, that’s the ultimate goal, but I think I have to think over some things and, you know, just, uhm, get through the next weeks and then get ready for indoors.”

Returning home and thinking are a couple of things that Hingis will definitely be doing over the next few weeks. Martina Hingis is a player that hates to lose, and she reminded us in the interview that it is definitely disappointing for her to lose to someone below her in the rankings. It is not as if she lost to a player like Serena Williams, who is working her way back up to the pinnacle of the sport, but Virginie Razzano’s current singles ranking is No. 112.

As disappointing as last night’s match was for Martina, she should be confident that she has accomplished what she set out to do in January - return to the top of the tour. Staying there will not be easy for her, but give her a few weeks off, a chance to renew her focus, and she will be playing back in Europe. I still do not believe that we have seen the best Hingis has to offer since her comeback - after all, her best results have always been in the Land of Oz.

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