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 It
was the year of the Swiss Miss in 1997.
Sixteen-year-old Martina Hingis of Switzerland took the tennis world
by storm as she began the year by winning her first 37 singles matches.
She won her first career Grand Slam singles title at the 1997 Australian
Open, becoming the youngest player in the Open Era (beginning in
1968) and in the 20th century to win a Grand Slam singles title.
On March 31 that year, Hingis became the youngest No. 1-ranked player
(since the tour's computer rankings began in 1975) at age 16 years,
6 months and one day.
By the time she arrived in San Diego County for the Toshiba Tennis
Classic, her first Southern California appearance, Hingis' singles
record stood at an amazing 50-1.
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After a first round bye, Hingis faced
Venus Williams, who entered the main draw as a qualifier. Fans were
excited and the highly anticipated encounter was sold out. The match
on stadium court was delayed for 15 minutes as traffic was grid
locked trying to get into the resort.
Hingis dominated every aspect of the match in winning 6-2, 6-1.
The duel was a preview of the U.S. Open final where Hingis would
once again get the upper hand.
The top-seeded Swiss Miss continued to roll as she destroyed Mary
Pierce of France, 6-0, 6-2 to advance to the final where she met
second-seeded Monica Seles.
Seles and Hingis actually met eight years earlier in Zurich, Switzerland.
Ranked ninth in the world at the time, Seles was 15 and Hingis was
just nine years old. The meeting came on a mountaintop playground
as Hingis asked Seles to pose for a snapshot with her.
Seles did remember Hingis. "She was a cute little girl," Seles recollected.
In an entertaining final, Hingis defeated Seles, 7-6 (4), 6-4 before
a capacity crowd of 6,200 at the La Costa Resort & Spa.
The champion received $79,000 for her effort, but it was Seles who
was a sentimental favorite. All afternoon, the sold out crowd pulled
for the former number one player in the world. Fans yelled, "We
love you, Monica!" throughout the match.
Afterwards, Seles thanked the crowd. "I'm going to come back here
next year for sure," she said, "because you guys are awesome."
Hingis wrapped up the day by winning the doubles title as she teamed
with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to defeat Amy Frazier and Kimberly
Po, 6-3, 7-5. The winners split $23,750.
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| Martina
Hingis (left) and Monica Seles |
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Attendance for the week was 70,843, a
new tournament record. The previous record was 61,578 in 1995.
Sixteen-year-old wildcard entrant, Alexandra Stevenson, a junior
at La Jolla Country Day, lost 6-3, 6-1 in the first round to Japan's
Ai Sugiyama. Stevenson had phones calls from Pete Sampras and Tony
Gwynn wishing her good luck.
Hingis left La Costa with a 54-1 singles record and a perfect 5-0
mark against Seles. Her win at the Toshiba Tennis Classic was her
ninth title in 10 tournaments.
During Venus Williams' 6-3, 6-2 first round victory over Argentina's
Florencia Labat, some of her purple, green and white beads fell
to the court, prompting umpire, Leanne White, to call a let.
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