Hingis Avoids a Piercing

INDIAN WELLS — Mary Pierce picked up where she’d left off two days earlier, displaying the power and precision that drove Serena Williams to tears and out of the tournament.

The difference Friday was that Martina Hingis was on the other side of the court.

Hingis withstood the early fury, waiting for the slightest opening, the smallest of cracks in Pierce’s resolve in the Indian Wells Tennis Masters Series and eventually scored a 6-4, 6-2 semifinal victory.

Hingis got her opportunity in the sixth game of the first set. Pierce led 4-1, 30-0, and seemingly was on her way to a second upset. But she let the game slip away with a series of forehand errors and the top-seeded Hingis scampered through the opening, losing only two more games against the fifth-seeded Frenchwoman.

“I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll wait for my chance, let’s see what happens,’ ” Hingis said. “I just tried to mix it up, get every ball back and see what she’ll do. She said she got a little bit tired. You can’t play like that the whole match, so I still had hope.”

Said Pierce: “Martina played two really good games at 4-1, just made me work a lot for the points. I probably dropped my intensity a little and wasn’t as aggressive or coming forward as I was in the first five games.”

Pierce said her legs felt tired and heavy after Hingis cut her lead to 4-3. Or there could have been another reason for her fatigue.

“Well, it could have been the mistake, that my hotel gave me a wake-up call at 6:45 [instead of 8:30],” Pierce said, smiling. “Besides that, I have no idea.”

For the Swiss Hingis, Pierce’s power game served as a suitable warmup for today’s final against second-seeded Lindsay Davenport. But Davenport isn’t in the habit of folding and losing against Hingis. Hingis joked about how to make up for her small stature against the likes of Davenport, Pierce and Serena and Venus Williams.

“I’m quicker,” she said. “They’re slower.”

That has hardly hurt Davenport, who is 18-1 in 2000 and has defeated Hingis in their last four meetings, notably the Australian Open final in January. Davenport led, 6-1, 5-1, before coming back to earth, eventually winning, 6-1, 7-5. Hingis laughed at the suggestion that it took her a while to get going.

“A while? She had three unforced errors until 6-1, 5-1--not much you can do,” Hingis said.

Despite the repeated losses, she is looking forward to another shot at Davenport. Davenport leads the series, 10-7, and their final at Scottsdale, Ariz., earlier this month was canceled because of bad weather.

“Every time you go and play Lindsay, for me, it’s a special feeling,” Hingis said. “I don’t have that [against] many players when I walk out there, that I’m going to lose or I don’t know what’s going to happen until I see what’s going on the court after a few games.

“Against Lindsay, it’s always that kind of special or against the Williams sisters. Even against Mary today, I was nervous. You have only those few top players. Against the other ones, because they’re not at the top, there’s something missing.”

Rivalries sell the sport, Hingis realizes. A Davenport-Hingis final seems to be the early theme of 2000.

“Who knows?” Hingis said. “It would be great if it would be [that way] because people are always looking for rivalries, big stories. With Lindsay, I always felt like that. She was the one player, most consistent, who had the ability to be at the top for a longer time.”

Tennis Notes

The Palisades Tennis Club in Newport Beach is a finalist to host the Fed Cup finals in November, according to Palisades director Ken Stuart. The Palisades Club hosted the Davis Cup, the men’s equivalent of the Fed Cup, in 1997.

“I think everything is in our favor,” Stuart said. “The Davis Cup was such a huge success, financially and in every sense. All the ingredients are in place.”

Russ Cline, who promoted the 1997 Davis Cup in Newport Beach and is promoting the 2000 Davis Cup at the Great Western Forum, is bidding for the promotional rights to the Fed Cup. Stuart said he was told a decision would be made in the next month.

The round-robin tournament will include the defending champion Americans and three teams to be determined.

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Staff writer Dave McKibben contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Today’s Matches

STADIUM 1, STARTING NOON

Women’s singles final

* Martina Hingis, Switzerland, vs. Lindsay Davenport

Women’s doubles final

* Anna Kournikova, Russia-Natasha Zvereva, Belarus vs. Davenport-Corina

Morariu*

Men’s singles semifinals

* Nicolas Lapentti, Ecuador vs. Alex Corretja, Spain*

* Mark Philippoussis, Australia vs. Thomas Enqvist, Sweden

* Match will not start

before 2:15 p.m.