TENNIS: MARTINA KNOCKED OFF THRONE. CAPRIATI IS THE NEW QUEEN

209 weeks, fourth outstanding record for women’s tennis behind the immortals Graf, Navratilova and Evert. That’s how long Martina Hingis stayed at the top of women’s tennis. As and from this week, the new queen is Jennifer Capriati, an incredible feat for three reasons.
Reason one: First of all, raise your hand anybody who only two seasons ago would have bet a dime on the return to fame of a tennis player involved in stories of theft and drugs. Capriati, the former child prodigy of the courts, appeared inevitably to have been dropped from the list of up and coming champions, all set for a rather uncertain future to say the least. Instead, the US athlete has managed to give herself a total overhaul, in terms of both mindset and play and is currently enjoying what she herself calls “a daydream, a story that goes to show how it’s never too late in life for...anything.” Now let’s go on to the second reason why Capriati has been crowned queen. Congratulations Jennifer, meaning: the fall of Martina Hingis, she too a perfect adlolescent tennis machine, capable of winning Slam matches one after the other and playing the role of lead protagonist of the new millennium, after ousting even Steffi Graf. This prima donna performance has however thus far hidden an important crisis; in fact, the Swiss tennis player, with tremendous room for improvement in future years, has been hit by an incredible technical-tactical involution. Martina has not won a Slam match since January 1999 - a period of almost three years.
This thoroughbred player, used to running to victory, especially in the most important matches, now finds herself in an embarrassing situation: she is incapable of winning when nerves and energies require maximum effort. If before she had made it to the top with a coldness and a cynicism rather precocious for a girl of only 16, her last performances have produced strong doubts as to whether these characteristics will continue. And here we come to the third and last consideration, which in fact tends to upset the previous two. What is it exactly that has stopped Martina from winning a Major tournament over the past three years while always remaining number one? Initially, a bad classification system based on average-points and on comparison of results with the previous season. This is the only possible explanation for the fact that, while continuing not to win, the Swiss player has stayed on top. Even now that the new boss would appear to be Jennifer, there is still something wrong somewhere.
Of course, it is true that the US player has been extremely consistent over the past year in terms of results, but what about a certain Venus Williams who, during the last two years, left everyone standing twice in a row at Wimbledon and the US Open? According to this week’s rankings, she is “only” number 4, behind even Lindsay Davenport, another player, like Hingis, who has not achieved any important results for some time… There is no doubt however that the Black Venus is currently the world’s best player. This appears clear from the way she treats her top-ranking opponents on the courts; a big gap exists between her and other strong athletes - perhaps the same gap that existed a few years back between Hingis and the small pursuing group of players. So, when thinking how to comment the current situation, with every respect for the brand new queen, something the great Gino Bartali once said (about the classification system) immediately comes to mind, “it’s all wrong, it ought to be all reviewed...”