Hingis - Mauresmo 1999 Australian Open Final: All You Have To Know About This Match

Hi, I'm Martina Hingis and you're watching the Australian Open on ESPN. Pam, I don't know if there's anybody in tennis who works more closely with the media and for publicity purposes than Martina Hingis. Well, she really is someone that enjoys the spotlight. She's grown up with it. She was about the most publicized 13 and 14 year old player ever to come out of Europe. She's battled back to 30, 40. Very big point now for Maresmo. And Maresmo just making Hingis wait just a tad there. That's a good thing. Because really, Hingis plays at a very quick pace. 30, 15. Maresmo in danger of getting out front here for the first time in the match in any set. She was down early in the first set, never recovered. She's not there in enough time to hit the passing shot. Court coverage by Hingis. Best point of the match so far. 30, 15. Unbelievable backhand. Mentioned it before, Pam, how many successful doubles titles that Martina Hingis has, alongside Anna Kornikova on the left of your screen. They won again here. Well, an amazing run in singles and doubles. They had the roof closed yesterday, so they won it actually inside. And there is her partner looking on. There's Francoise Durr. She is in charge of the French women. They had 11 in the main draw here, four in the round of 16 for the first time in their history. Left hand needs to take over a little bit. Promotion from Hingis after that one. She knows how important this game is after being down love 40. That's very good court coverage. Because when you get there, you've got to be able to do something with it. And she sure did. There's the break. She held, and that's a break in the set. 5-3, Hingis leads. Now she's got a match point, and this will be for her third straight Australian Open title. Cheers. Top spin of the backhand side, and obviously it's a dangerous shot. One hour old. This is another championship point. That's Merezmo's friend and companion. And it's really hard to watch situations like that. Championship point down, hit a winner right on the line. They live in Saint-Tropez. Trying to think of who the backhand reminds me of in a bit like Pete Sampras. Little Sabatini in there too. Third championship point. It's obviously the backhand of Merezmo that we're talking about. Really seen it today. Fred, that's a great serve. Unbelievable. That's the one she nearly pronates the wrist on that. Wired to that second court. Huge serve. Another one. Made that one look easy. You can tell the crowd really behind Merezmo now. Impressed that she's fought off the three championship points. She faced two match points her opening round. Came back to win. That was against Karina Morario of the U.S. Ability to do that. It's way behind her. She's got to move to her left as well as backing up. And mom is having a hard time looking. Championship point number four. How big were they? And that was one. All those match points, it's not as though Hingis has played a bad point on any of them. It's just been brilliant from Merezmo. Pretend like every point's a championship point against you. She can't string them together. This has been her big problem. She can't win games when she's been up. And she hasn't been able to string points together. Or get a lot of first serves in a row in the court. Makes it look so easy because she gets it so short. She doesn't hit that one deep into the court. She can catch that angle. Gets the angle. She just says, I want one. Just one. To this game, talk about pressure after five championship points. Hingis looking up at her mom and then saying, what have I got to do? You know, I've only played one bad point in five. Now it's number six. She's doing what she should do, which is she went back, toweled off. She takes a lot of extra time here. Can't argue with that play from Hingis either. Just well done Merezmo again. Scream from Hingis. She's making the defending champion work for it. Boy, she had that totally under control and then missed an easy volley. Another championship point. And under the head she hit there, Cliff. You know, that was from down here at court. So that's really very deep into the court. And then she missed the volley. She will treasure that tennis racket forever. Last game, one of the most memorable finals. How nice to see someone enjoy a victory so naturally with such a sparkling smile and with so much pleasure. And mother, Melody Molitor, congratulating her. Well done. Three years ago when Hingis won this tournament, her mom actually jumped down onto the court from that position. But I think a couple of years on, Melody Molitor figures she should just stay perched up there. And we also had a glimpse of Kornikova. Some of the images of the greatest women players of all time. Question now is whether Martina Hingis joins that illustrious group of great champions. And I think you would have to agree, Pam Schreiber, that she certainly deserves to at such a young age having done so well. Five Grand Slam titles now. Oh, absolutely. I think when people talk about the history of women's tennis and all the wonderful teenagers that have won titles, Martina Hingis is going to be at the top of everybody's list. And with all the doubles titles as well, she's won more Grand Slam titles than any other 18-year-old.