Swiss Miss dunked at tea time

There was no spat with an absent Melanie Molitor this time around.

There was no surging youngster headed for the quarterfinals this time -- and don't think Virginia Ruano-Pascual will even sniff the quarters here at the Big W. (Although she played a wonderful match and deserves to bask in the glow of the biggest win in her career.)

There was no shattering moment from the French Open that could have caused a death spiral. (Just a rather deflating and increasingly commonplace one -- a semifinal loss.)

Heck, there wasn't even a short-sleeved shirt this time around.

And there weren't those darned defective shoes from Sergio Tacchini to blame this time around (instead it was her back).

Yet, Martina Hingis lost as the number one seed in the first round at Wimbledon... again. And not just again, but for the second time in the last three years.

This apparently emergent pattern of losing in the first round as the "Big 1" at the Big W should end, but only because Hingis' grass-court performances won't give her the staggered (and high) seeding that the Lords of Wimbledon grant to those who excel in their kingdom.

Indeed, losing in the first round again is yet another sign of how Martina Hingis' tennis star has -- for the moment -- fallen.

After once again skipping the warm-up grass court tournaments leading up to Wimbledon, Hingis should have been fresh and ready to put together her customary run to the semis of a Grand Slam tournament. (Whether she would have won was a distinctly doubtful prospect.) Hingis didn't exactly enter this Wimbledon sky high, but she certainly lacked the baggage that surrounded her stunning 1999 loss to Jelena Dokic, a two-and-love nightmare that rocked the All England Club.

Hingis had just lost the 1999 French Final to Steffi Graf, throwing a temper tantrum on and off the court, both just before and just after the end of the match. Molitor, Hingis' mother and coach, memorably forced her daughter to stay on court for the trophy presentation, but Martina's anger and frustration remained at the boiling point, so much so that Martina didn't want Melanie in the seats at Wimbledon, the first time ever that Mom wouldn't be around during one of Martina's Grand Slam matches.

Aside of her personal baggage, Hingis had an opponent in Dokic who surged to the quarterfinals with fireballing groundstrokes, or -- as TNT analyst Mary Carillo likes to put it -- "Big Babe Tennis."

This time around, Hingis shouldn't have been weighted down with outside considerations. Nor should she have been troubled by the prowess of Virginia Ruano-Pascual, a perennial lower-round dweller at slams and the 83rd-ranked player in the world.

Martina Navratilova, pairing with Carillo for TNT's first-week weekday coverage of The Championships, offered an interesting little stat about Maria Alejandra Vento, a veteran Spanish player like Ruano-Pascual and Jennifer Capriati's first-round opponent on Monday at the Big W.

Navratilova noted that Vento had earned $519,000 in ten years on the women's circuit. "Considering all the expenses," said the nine-time Wimbledon champion, "she would make more money teaching (tennis)."

While Ruano-Pascual has had slightly more success than Vento in Grand Slams, (both have reached the fourth round at Wimbledon once, while Ruano-Pascual made the '95 French quarters), her ceiling at major tournaments is the second or third round. (For Vento, it's the first or second round.) This is a player Martina Hingis should dominate with her usual -- or perhaps now not-so-usual? -- assortment of shots from all angles at all speeds at all times.

Yet, Hingis willingly accepted a defensive posture throughout the match -- there was never any doubt about it. Hingis made a half-baked attempt to come to the net in the second set, only after she had made her (death)bed and quite literally chose to lie in it. And even when Hingis did come to the net, the player who has won several Grand Slam doubles titles (with Helena Sukova, Jana Novotna and Anna Kournikova -- and that's not counting mixed doubles titles) lacked focus, lacked crispness, lacked angles.

Martina Hingis stunk.

Instead of being baggage-free, Hingis was as tight as the form-fitting outfit that wrapped her upper body. And while it wasn't the full monty bodysuit that an obscure player named Ann White brought to a third-round match at Wimbledon back in the mid-1980s, shocking the prim and proper Brits in the process, it brought about the same result as White's match: a loss.

To provide a point in contrast to Hingis, consider the other Monday matchup of highly-seeded star against gallant but overmatched Spanish gray lady: Capriati against the aforementioned Maria Alejandra Vento. Vento grabbed a quick 2-0 lead against Capriati, yet Jennifer swatted that deficit away, shrugged it off without a thought, and won 13 straight games to cruise to an easy win.

Hingis? At tea time in suburban London town, she had all the toughness of a scone immersed in the hot herbal drink.

When she battled Venus Williams in an extraordinary U.S. Open semifinal, a loss was easier to take for Hingis in the sense that she competed, hit and thought in a match with the savvy and presence that brought her a number one ranking and five grand slam titles before she turned 19.

When she lost to Capriati in the Aussie final, just about anyone could understand that after dealing with both Williams sisters and a full doubles calendar of matches, Hingis had little in the tank for a match with the true number one in the world.

But after junking doubles to concentrate on singles, the listless loss to Capriati in the French semis and this devastating defeat to a member of the female Spanish Armada at Wimbledon have put Martina Hingis at a career crossroads. Much like the Williams sisters, although in a very different way (the Williamses play very few matches, whereas Hingis loads up), the Swiss Miss must reassess her commitment to the game, and to tweaking her game in ways that will enable her to rediscover a winning edge.

Hingis is too good to become... no offense... a veritable Maria Alejandra Vento. Yet, her fragile mental makeup will certainly keep her from the winner's circle, unless it gets fixed... y muy pronto tambien.