February 2019: Martina Hingis Forehand

[don_budge]

Oddly enough I only saw her play that one time, when she was 12. Physically she was very mature and you would have thought she was 15. She was playing an 18 year-old and I watched the entire match. I took some photos as I was into photography at the time....if can dig them out I will scan a few and upload them. Kournikova was also playing the event in the same year aged just 11. I watched Kournikova, too, who was amazing but double-faulted constantly.

Hingis won all the key points in that match and it really made me think the girl was going to be amazing...in the same way you would though about McEnroe in his early years. Hingis won in two tight sets that day. And don't forget she had already won the junior French Open title a month before!

She was just so calm and in the moment of the big points. You just can't teach that.

Fascinating. The entire post. I only highlight your last comment because this is just white light...whatever that means. There is some kind of control about her demeanour. Even when she petulantly tosses her racquet you never get the sense that she is rattled. In the match against a young Serena William she is really out of the match. You would think she was. She was entirely gassed. Up against a stronger opponent. Yet she had the presence of mind to stay calm and not to panic and toss in the towel.

What an interesting comparison to John McEnroe. I have been watching a lot of matches that he played in his comeback. He stills has that presence of mind to deal with the moment. Rarely, despite all of the over the top histrionics, does he truly get rattled. Even in the match that I posted with Mikael Pernfors when he was defaulted at the AO he was really in the match.

"You just can't teach that." Well played.

[bottle]

It's okay to talk about how good looking Martina Hingis is, but what about the common core belief that terrible things happen to anyone who goes out with her? Could it be that she is a witch?