Hingis joins the Dokic 'fan' club
By LINDA PEARCE
SYDNEY
Who would know, and could best advise, about the heavy
demands tennis stardom can make on a tiny teen? Who
better than former prodigy Martina Hingis to ask about
the pressures sure to be faced by rising young
Australian Jelena Dokic?
``I think she's smart enough to get through it,'' said
Hingis, in her fifth year on the tour and all of 18
years old herself. ``She's been popular before. She's
been No.1 junior in the world so I pretty much think
that she knows what to do, how to handle it.''
Hingis hit with Dokic for more than an hour one
morning at the Hopman Cup when a corporate day
limited the number of practice courts at Perth's State
Tennis Centre. A tournament official called to
extend what many would consider to be a
privileged invitation; Dokic, the world No.341,
nonchalantly accepted.
The 15-year-old did not gush about the experience
afterwards, saying only that ``she takes the ball
early, doesn't give you much time. She's done it
well, hasn't she?''
Nor was Dokic overwhelmed later in the week
when she showed great poise to recover from a
nervous start against Amanda Coetzer to beat
Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, Sandrine Testud and Asa
Carlsson while partnering Mark Philippoussis to
Australia's first Hopman Cup victory.
``She seems to be very confident, very mature for
her age, and she can play tennis, too,'' Hingis said of
Dokic. ``Especially in the matches, she's very
competitive and knows how to play tennis.''
Not dissimilarly, Hingis knows how to play to a
crowd. A crowd gathered yesterday at a Sydney
hotel at a launch a new range of sports sunglasses,
and Hingis held court, tossing signed tennis balls to
guests and joking about her traditional visit to
Manly beach and her Australian sunburn, now
peeling for the third time.
Asked how much her rivals had improved in a year
in which the former No.1 suffered through a
hideously unfamiliar six-month drought, Hingis
replied: ``They had to, otherwise they wouldn't get
anywhere. Lindsay worked on herself, lost a lot of
weight and played some great tennis.''
Predictably, Hingis also considers Davenport her
main rival at this week's Sydney International and
over the following fortnight at Melbourne Park. The
American won the last major, the US Open, but
Hingis recovered late to take out the Chase
Championship final in New York. ``I had a little
comeback. At the end of the year it was me and her
in the finals, so that pretty much says all about it.''
Hingis, who plays Adelaide 17-year-old Alicia
Molik in the second round at White City, also
confirmed that she would honor her Australian
Open commitment to the promoters' dream doubles
partnership with fellow tennis ``Spice Girl'' Anna
Kournikova.
Jana Novotna, Hingis' regular partner and
co-winner of three of the four grand slam doubles
titles last year, called just before Christmas to say
she had changed her mind about taking an extended
January holiday.
Too late, though, because the deal had been
brokered about six months before with Kournikova,
another who may have a few words of advice the
confident young Australian so far seems not to need.
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