LOVE-15 AT THE OPEN

By Steve Wulf

The future is not just coming, she is rushing the net. Martina Hingis danced across the courts at the U.S. Open in Queens, New York, the past two weeks, displaying an amazing variety of shots, a real flair for the gamble, an occasional peevishness and a smile as winning as her cross-court forehand. The fact that she is 15 is both sublime and ridiculous. Her surprise victim in the quarterfinals, Jana Novotna, remarked, "She has a very light game." Pressed to elaborate, Novotna said, "You saw it. Light. Effortless."

Bud Collins, the renowned tennis writer and commentator, immediately dubbed the 5-ft. 6-in. phenomenon "The Unbearable Lightness of Being" Hingis. Like Milan Kundera's novel, Hingis was conceived in Czechoslovakia. She was named by her tennis-loving parents for the national heroine and acquaintance Martina Navratilova. By the age of two, the little Martina was playing outdoors, and at five she was playing in tournaments. She spent her first eight years in what is now Slovakia, and after her parents' divorce and her mother Melanie's subsequent marriage to a Swiss computer executive, she moved to Trubbach, Switzerland. Her adopted home has naturally led to her being called Heidi, but Heidi did not sign a five-year deal with the all-powerful International Management Group when she was 12.

At the U.S. Open, Hingis made the semifinals in not only singles but also women's doubles, with Helena Sukova, and mixed doubles, with Christo van Rensburg. Alas, she lost in the semis of all three. In the women's singles on Saturday, the No. 16 seed fell to the No. 1 player in the world, Steffi Graf, 7-5, 6-3. Though Hingis blew five set points in the first set and briefly lost her composure, there was no disgrace in the defeat. Asked last Wednesday if playing in three competitions might be too much, Hingis, whose game is ahead of her English, replied, "Well, I am young, and, as I say, I enjoy to play tennis. But I will think about to stay overnight here, so I don't have to go back [to Manhattan]." Then, as she does after every reply, Hingis laughed.

Little Martina is in the vanguard of a new generation of players that also includes 15-year-olds Anna Kournikova and Venus Williams. But it's the last generation of teenyboppers as far as the Women's Tennis Association is concerned. Mindful of the burnout suffered by child prodigies Jennifer Capriati, Andrea Jaeger and Tracy Austin, the w.t.a. has instituted new age restrictions: players 14 and under are barred from tour events, and players 15 to 17 will be gently introduced to topflight competition. Hingis, Kournikova and Williams turned pro before the rules went into effect, so they are exempt.

Hingis is a special case anyway. "I don't like to rave about a 15-year-old," Collins said after the Novotna match, "but the new Martina is a real tennis player. She came to net more this afternoon than Monica Seles has in her whole career. Unlike Capriati, who relied on pure power, Martina has a sophisticated game that is only going to get stronger. Her mom may be a great teacher, but this girl has a sense of the court that can't be taught. I have just seen the future of tennis, and it's thrilling."

Melanie Zogg has been likened to a stage mother, but she has clearly instilled in her daughter a love of the game that Capriati never had. At the same time, she has given her daughter a life outside tennis. "I try to go to Broadway, some musicals," says Hingis. "I always do sports: horseback riding, soccer, basketball, swimming." She is self-possessed enough to conduct interviews in English, Czech and German, and she knows the right pose to strike, whether she's upset with a call or celebrating a victory. And there will be many victories to come. Asked if someday people might associate the name Martina with her and not just Navratilova, Hingis said, "I think everyone would like to be like her, to be famous, that the people talk about you. Yeah, I think so." Then she laughed again.