Dateline: 11/12/00

Martina Hingis prevailed over Monica Seles 6-7 (7-5), 6-4, 6-4 in a great finale for the 2000 season. The crowd in New York's Madison Square Garden was treated to 2 hours, 21 minutes of Hingis and Seles hitting angle after angle, running each other almost non-stop. Seles surprised most observers by fending off exhaustion, despite having been off for most of the previous two months, recovering from injury. Monica's biggest weakness is her conditioning, but her biggest strength is mental toughness, and she was able to will her way through the high mileage Martina imposed on her.

After winning the first set tie-break, Seles led in the second set, 4-2, but Hingis, as she so often does, found a way to raise her level of play, and proceeded to break Monica's next two serves. Seles hits hard, fairly flat, and usually close to the lines, and the slightest miscalculation in her racquet angles causes her to miss. She hit just wide or into the top few inches of the net on a number of points where that couple of inches could have turned the match her way. Hingis's shots have more spin and less pace, so when she could get to Seles's deep, powerful angles, she had a bigger window to hit through. Martina would run Monica until she made Seles stretch enough to lose some pace, which would set up an easier ball to put away.

As the crowd rose to give both players a standing ovation and Martina's mother came over to congratulate her, Hingis was in tears. Despite having held the number one ranking for most of 2000, Hingis did not win a Grand Slam this year, and she felt she had to win this season finale to affirm her place as the best player of the year.

This was Seles's last Chase Championship. The season finale will be moving to Germany next year, and Seles will not play in Germany. She was stabbed there in 1993, and the German legal system never even jailed her attacker. Before she was stabbed, Monica had dominated the women's tour and won the Chase in three consecutive years, 1990 through 1992.

The semifinal opponents for Hingis and Seles both happened to be beautiful, blonde, highly talented, 19-year-old Russians.

For Hingis, it was the more-than-well-known Anna Kournikova, who has beaten her only once in a dozen or so tries. Anna has the weapons to beat Martina, but she can't sustain her top level of play long enough to close out two sets. She had played consistent and smart tennis in the previous rounds, and led in the first set against Hingis, but her unforced errors grew as Hingis kept running down all but her best shots. Hingis won 7-6 [7-2], 6-2.

In the other semifinal, Seles played one of the most exciting players to enter the tennis spotlight this year, Elena Dementieva. Dementieva had upset the second seed, Lindsay Davenport, in the first round. Elena has a rare combination of height (5'11") and speed, with a huge inside-out forehand. She tends to be a slow starter, but she seems to focus better and take the ball earlier as a match progresses. Seles smartly used low balls against Dementieva's height and fairly Western grips, winning 6-1, 7-6 (7-4). It won't be long before Dementieva learns to elevate her game earlier in a match and finds answers on technical matters like handling low balls. Look for her to take at least one important title next year.

Would Hingis get your vote for the best player of 2000, or does Venus Williams, with her incredible run from Wimbledon through the Olympics, deserve that distinction? Weigh in here.

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