Wimbledon 1999

Wimbledon'99

Tuesday 22nd June
Sweet Sixteen Dokic Shocks Hingis
by Sandra Harwitt
Sweet sixteen Jelena Dokic of Australia's extraordinary debut at Wimbledon was also the continuation of a horror tale for world No. 1 Martina Hingis.
The young Dokic, who earned her shot at the top-seeded Hingis via the qualifying tournament, did the unthinkable by upsetting the Swiss Miss 6-2, 6-0 in an astonishing 55-minute first round match.

"I guess I still can't believe I beat her," said the No. 129 ranked Dokic, smiling, the lowest ranked player to beat a top seed at a Grand Slam in the Open Era. "It was a big win for me, coming from qualifying. I thought I played quite well.
"Even when I won that first set I didn't think it would be easy because one chance and she's going to take it. I knew I had to play well the whole match."

It was the first time since 1994 that the top seed in the women's Wimbledon draw went out in the first round -- back then it was Steffi Graf who was sent packing by American Lori McNeil. The only other top seed to lose in the first round of a Grand Slam since the Open Era began in 1968 was when Virginia Ruzici of Romania was upset by Margaret Sawyer at the 1979 Australian Open.
Hingis started the season in fine fashion, winning the Australian Open for the third consecutive year, which included a third round victory over Dokic in their only other encounter.
But wherever Hingis seems to go these days, trouble seems to follow, and this result was just the latest disappointment. Despite the dramatic loss, Hingis kept her composure and behaviour in check, taking defeat in a sportsmanlike manner.
"If you lose, it doesn't really matter what the score is," said Hingis, when asked if she was humiliated by the easy beating. "nobody really cares, if you lose."
First, Hingis was booed and jeered by fans during the French Open final which she lost to Steffi Graf. Almost from the outset of that historic match, Hingis started throwing tantrums, and as the match went on, the tantrums became more intolerable to the capacity crowd. By the end, Hingis stormed off the court only to be ushered back, dissolved in tears, by her mother and coach, Melanie Molitor.
Hingis's hopes of repairing her reputation by winning a second career Wimbledon trophy, by winning it without any replication of the French Open histrionics, was gone in a bat of an eye.
In truth, what truly sent shockwaves through the press corps, and the tennis community, at Wimbledon was the "missing in action" Molitor. While her mother was at Eastbourne last week, the two mutually decided that always being together might not always work.
This match not only marked a major upset for Hingis, but also marked the first professional match she played without Molitor in attendance.
"This tournament, we decided to have a little bit of distance," Hingis admitted. "We'll probably work a bit more on our private lives and see how it is going to go in the future.
"We are fine together. We call each other one or two times a day, but don't talk about tennis too much. But it is only three or four days we didn't see each other."
A relative newcomer to the tour, and only playing in her third career Grand Slam, Dokic has already experienced off-court trouble on the tour. Just two weeks ago, Dokic's father, Damir, created an unruly and allegedly drunken scene at the Birmingham tournament, throwing himself on a car bonnet outside the gates of the event. His action caused the WTA Tour to ban the elder Dokic from the grounds of Birmingham for the remainder of the tournament, but he was front and centre at the match against Hingis.
When asked what her strategy was to beat Hingis, the Yugoslavian-born, Australian citizen joked, "Hit winners and no errors."
In actuality, that wasn't really a joke, but just about how Dokic went about winning. At every juncture of the match, Hingis was clearly outclassed by Dokic, who won the 1998 US. Open junior title and was ranked the No. 1 junior girl last year..
Hingis never infiltrated Dokic's serve, failing to take advantage of two break points during the match. In contrast, Dokic made Hingis look more the amateur than the best in the business, tearing apart her game stroke by stroke. Hingis, who really looked out of the match in the second set, lost her serve five of the 12 break point chances she offered.
While Dokic created the biggest story at this Wimbledon by pushing Hingis to the sidelines, she isn't planning on creating an even bigger story by taking the women's title at the end of the fortnight.
"Just because I beat Hingis doesn't mean I have to come out and win the tournament," Dokic said. "It's going to be tough to come out and play again."

Australian teen-ager shocks Hingis

By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- How astonishing was 16-year-old Jelena Dokic's 6-2, 6-0 victory over top-ranked Martina Hingis?

Well, it left her boisterous father, Damir, speechless.
``He was out of words,'' his daughter said after one of the biggest upsets in Wimbledon history.

That's significant since earlier this month Damir made headlines when he was ejected from a women's grasscourt tournament in Birmingham, England, for cheering too loudly and abusing match officials.
Outside the grounds he was arrested -- and later released -- for stopping traffic and throwing himself on the hood of a passing car.
Warned he'd be under surveillance at Wimbledon, he watched Tuesday in near-silence as his daughter routed Hingis.

Dokic dominated the world's No. 1 player with an assortment of two-hand backhands, powerful forehands and deft drop shots.
Dokic won 11 straight games at one point. Leading 4-0 in the second set and waiting for a dispirited Hingis to serve, she bobbed up and down at the baseline like a boxer just warming up.

She may be a new name to casual tennis fans, but Dokic has some impressive credentials.
The world's top junior last year and the defending U.S. Open junior champion, Dokic had already beaten three top 20 players this year, including four-time Grand Slam winner Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario.

Hingis was victim No. 4 as she became only the third top-seeded woman in Wimbledon history to lose in her opening match.
Dokic entered Wimbledon as a qualifier, but that's only because at 16, she's limited by the WTA Tour to 10 tournaments and the four Grand Slams. She's currently ranked No. 129, but in the next list she'll soar into the top 50 -- and the top 10 may not be far off.
Dokic, who lives in Sydney, Australia, emigrated from war-torn Serbia in 1994 and turned professional late last year. She is coached by her father and by former pro Wally Masur.
Five months ago in the Australian Open, Hingis beat Dokic 6-1, 6-2 in the third round. And Dokic was ousted in the first round of the French Open.
``Just because I beat Hingis, doesn't mean I have to come out and win the tournament now,'' Dokic said. ``I have to keep my feet
on the ground.''
updated at Tue Jun 22 23:28:59 1999 PT

Hingis pulls out of doubles
By STEPHEN WADE
AP Sports Writer
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) -- After being stunned by a first-round defeat, top-ranked Martina Hingis decided not to wait around for doubles.
Hingis, who was defeated by Australian Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-0 in her opening match at Wimbledon on Tuesday, withdrew from doubles with partner Anna Kournikova.
A brief statement from Wimbledon referee Alan Mills said only that Hingis had ``a recurring medical problem.''
After the shock loss Tuesday, Hingis said she needed to take a four or five-week break to gather herself following an emotional loss in the French Open final against Steffi Graf.

Hingis embarrassed by Dokic in Wimbledon first-round shocker

LONDON (TICKER) -- In what was perhaps the most embarrassing performance ever set forth by a world No. 1, Switzerland's Martina Hingis suffered a humiliating 6-2, 6-0 first-round defeat at the hands of Australian qualifier Jelena Dokic today at the $11.7 million Wimbledon Championships.
Apparently still bothered by her loss to Steffi Graf in the French Open final, the top-seeded Hingis was outplayed in every facet of the game by the 16-year-old Dokic as she became only the third No. 1 women's seed to lose in the opening round at the All-England Club. Margaret Smith lost to Billie Jean King, then known as Billie Jean Moffitt, in 1962 and Graf fell to Lori McNeil in 1994.
"I'm not sure what went wrong. A lot of things happened," Hingis said. "I think I need to take some time off, take a break and recover. It is also that the the clay court and grass are a bit different. There probably wasn't enough time between Paris and Wimbledon."

This was Hingis' earliest exit from a Grand Slam since losing to Graf, 6-3, 6-1, in the first round at Wimbledon in 1995. Hingis has won five Grand Slam titles, including Wimbledon in 1997. She was the only seeded female to fail to reach the second round.

After splitting the first four games of the match with Dokic, Hingis unexplicably dropped the next 10 games. Dokic fired two straight aces for her first match point at 5-0, but lost it when she hit a backhand crosscourt passing shot wide. But the Australian got her second match point when Hingis' backhand service return went wide and closed out the monumental upset in 54 minutes when Hingis hit a backhand return wide.
"No one expected me to beat the world No. 1," Dokic said. "It was going to be tough to beat her and there was no pressure on me. Even if I lost the match, if I played well it was sort of good for me to get close. She was the one supposed to win."

Hingis was denied in her bid to complete a personal Grand Slam with her loss to Graf at Roland Garros. Bothered by a vocal crowd in support of Graf and letting her temper get the best of her, Hingis sobbed in the arms of her mother and coach, Melanie Molitor, following the loss.
Hingis' frustration in Paris seemed to carry over to her performance today, with her mother absent from courtside for the first time in a Grand Slam match involving her daughter.

"We decided to have a little bit of distance so that we could work on our private lives and see how it is going to go in the future," Hingis explained on her mother's absence.

Currently ranked at a career-high No. 129, Dokic won last year's U.S. Open junior singles title and finished 1998 as the No. 1 junior player in the world. She became the lowest ranked female to defeat a world No. 1 at a Grand Slam in the Open Era (since 1968) and will move into the top 70 at the conclusion of Wimbledon.
Dokic first made headlines in January when she defeated Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and Sandrine Testud in teaming with Mark Philippoussis to lead their country to the Hopman Cup title. Later that month, she lost to Hingis, 6-1, 6-2, in the third round at the Australian Open.

WIMBLEDON, England - Martina Hingis was humiliated 6-2, 6-0 Tuesday Jun 22 by qualifier (in 3 rounds) Jelena Dokic in the first round of the women's singles at Wimbledon. Photos by Kieran Doherty