Picture: Getty
On June 5, 1999, historical or dramatic events take place in Paris, depending on your point of view. Martina Hingis is in the final of the French Open against Steffi Graf on the way to the career slam, then she completely throws out a referee decision.
Martina Hingis was 18 at the time and the dominant player on the tour. She had won the previous three majors in Wimbledon, New York and Melbourne before the Roland Garros tournament and now wants to complete the career slam. But everything should turn out differently.
Hingis leads 6: 4 and 2: 0 in the final against Steffi Graf when she throws a decision of the lines judge out of the concept. The five-time Grand Slam winner does not want her forehand to be given out. The chair referee confirms the decision, and then Hingis does something that is considered an absolute no-go in tennis: she enters the opposing half with boos and whistles from the spectators and looks at the place where an imprint should have been , himself – and briefly refuses to continue the game.
When things finally go on, Graf acts unimpressed. Hingis initially opposed this, she managed to break and she was only three points away from winning the tournament with her own service. Then she finally loses the thread, Graf turns the game, gets the set and ultimately the match. At 5-2 in the third set, Hingis is still trying to irritate Graf with serves from below. But the German can no longer be stopped. Hingis sheds tears and is comforted by her mother.
In retrospect, quite a few consider the endgame lost against Graf as the key to the further development of Hingis. In the following years she was not only victorious on the red ashes in Paris. Hingis could not triumph in the other major tournaments in singles either. Her victory at the 1999 Australian Open was to be the last individual success in Grand Slam tournaments. The highlights (and lows) of the game in the video:
