The contentious Roland Garros final, where Graf handed Hingis the…
This Saturday sees Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff compete for the title of Roland Garros champion. The American would make her Grand Slam debut in Paris at the age of 18, something that not all of the greatest tennis players in history have accomplished. For the Pole, it would be her second injury. This is the instance of Martina Hingis, who held the top spot in the world rankings for 209 weeks and won five Grand Slams in the singles division.played in the Paris final twice, losing both times. Surprisingly, the opening set went down 6-4, 6-2 against an Iva Majoli who would never do anything noteworthy again. However, it was the one against Steffi Graf on June 5, 1999, that escaped him and went down in history. [+] THIS IS THE WORLD WE LIVE IN.
It was one of the most peculiar and contentious finals in history. Without a doubt, Hingis was the favorite. She had just won the Australian Open, was ranked number one, and had not lost a set en route to the championship match. She had tennis legend Steffi Graf in front of her. After overcoming a plethora of physical issues that essentially kept her from playing in 1997 and 1998, the German made her way back to the courts. Furthermore, she advanced to the championship match via two extremely difficult quarterfinal and semifinal matches against Lindsay Davenport (6-1, 6-7, 6-3) and Mónica Seles (6-7, 6-3, 6-4).
Steffi performed well in the past, but the game has changed to become more athletic and faster. She’s already elderly. In his day, Hingis said, “Her time has passed.” And the first moments of the championship seemed to confirm his theory. Everything changed when he went 6-4, 2-0, and even served to win the match at 5-4.
