Teen Star Falters In French Finals Majoli Hands Hingis Her First Loss Of The Year And Becomes First Croatian To Win A Grand Slam Event

Martina Hingis, the 16-year-old tennis sensation, ended the French Open Saturday playing the unlikely - and unusual - role of gracious loser at Stade Roland Garros. She had her standard bright smile fixed on her face. She gave the standard waves to her adoring crowd. But she did not have the standard trophy to take home.

Iva Majoli - a bubbly, demonstrative 19-year-old from Croatia - wrought the biggest French Open upset in the Open Era Saturday afternoon on Center Court, where she made her Grand Slam final debut. Playing the most brilliant tennis of her career, Majoli overpowered a tired and uncharacteristically slow Hingis 6-4, 6-2 to hand the world’s No. 1 player her first loss this year. She also became the lowest seed (No. 9) to win the tournament in the Open Era, and the first Croatian to win any Grand Slam.

“I just felt there was more pressure on Martina than on me today, because she’s No. 1,” Majoli said. “She’s the one who had to win today. I was the one who, if I lost, would have had a great tournament. Now that I’ve won, it’s great.”

Majoli kept her boyfriend practically locked in their hotel room - “He was my prisoner,” she joked Saturday - during her earlier matches, because she was so nervous about her performance. He didn’t get to watch her long, arduous quarterfinal victory over Ruxandra Dragomir, one that ended with both players lying on the red clay. He didn’t get to watch her semifinal marathon against Amanda Coetzer, the player who had knocked Steffi Graf out of the draw. She let him come Saturday.

And with the boyfriend (whose name shall remain a secret, as a giggling Majoli insisted) on hand, along with several friends and family members, Majoli added one more big moment to her memorable French Open when Hingis hit a backhand into the net on the Croatian’s second match point opportunity, and Majoli threw up her arms in glee.

Hingis and Majoli embraced warmly in the aftermath, the two teenagers rubbing each other’s backs and sharing whispered giggles like a couple of girls who had just come from the prom. Majoli was almost shaking in her excitement. And Hingis - who graciously refused to use her own cramping and exhaustion as a means of demeaning Majoli’s accomplishment - never allowed the smile to slip from her face.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Iva,” said Hingis, who had won 40 straight matches - including the Australian Open - before Saturday’s defeat. “We had a great match. She just played her best tennis in this tournament. She won a Grand Slam. Only champs can win Grand Slam tournaments, that’s for sure.”

Two grueling weeks of tennis proved to be too much for Hingis, who is still recovering from knee surgery performed less than two months ago. She played a draining two-hour, 18-minute semifinal match against Monica Seles on Thursday and another grueling match with partner Arantxa Sanchez Vicario in the women’s doubles semifinals on Friday. And though she said Saturday that she did not regret her decision to play both singles and doubles here, Hingis was clearly worn out, seeming almost to droop in the heavy air and hot sun.

“This tournament has been pretty long,” Hingis admitted. “The goal was to reach the semifinals. I made that. I got to the finals … No one sees what hard work it was, everything, to get here, after the surgery. It’s just been like a wonder that I could compete at this tournament.”

Down a set and floundering, Hingis took a bathroom break after the fifth game of the second set (a move that Majoli thought might have been a bit of gamesmanship, given that she had just broken Hingis for a 3-2 lead) and it did absolutely no good. Majoli held service, then broke Hingis again to put herself in position to serve for the match.

During that changeover, Hingis took an injury timeout, and was treated for tightness and cramping in her left thigh. She returned to the court moving slowly, and seemed barely able to chase most of the shots that Majoli hit, wisely, to the far corners of the court. For the entire afternoon, Hingis did not seem to be as quick or as agile as usual, losing long points when Majoli ran her from corner to corner, and never once breaking Majoli’s serve.