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Qualifier Dokic sends Hingis in the stunner of the first round

Welcome to Wimbledon Flashbacks, Here, wtatennis.com will take a look at some of the most memorable tales of the Grand Slam event on the grass in the last 20 issues. After summarizing the best battles in Birmingham and the excellent encounters with Eastbourne Our review looks at the lawn areas of SW19 – first and foremost is the thunderous surprise of the qualification Jelena Dokic against former champion Martina Hingis in the first round in 1999.

THE MOMENT: When Wimbledon started in 1999, the top seed Martina Hingis came to the event with extremely mixed feelings.

The Swiss star was still firmly number 1 in the world rankings, and she had started the season in an outstanding way, winning her fifth Grand Slam title with three goals at the Australian Open. A run to Roland Garros’ finale meant that she had set an astonishing 13: 1 record on the grass at this year’s major events at the Grand Slam.

However, this one loss was heavy with imports. In the Roland Garros final in 1999, Hingis led a sentence and a pause and served for the one big title she missed. A leap in form, an exuberant crowd cheering on an opponent in an unusual outsider role, and Stefanie Graf’s tireless persistence Drag the German legend to a massive comeback win.

Hingis didn’t play a match between this emotional loss and Wimbledon. In addition, for the first time at a grand slam event, the 18-year-old decided to play Wimbledon without her guidance under the guidance of her mother and longtime trainer Melanie Molitor.

Still, Hingis hoped to expand her growing Grand Slam collection by keeping the Wimbledon title she won in 1997 at the age of 16. Their first round draw seemed pleasant – a qualification to start the fortnight.

And then the qualifiers were included in the draw.

The 1998 season ended with 15-year-old Australian youth player Jelena Dokic at the top of the ITF Junior Singles Championship after winning the US Open Singles Title for Girls.

In 1999, the powerful phenomenon immediately made a solid transition to the professionals and reached the third round of their Grand Slam debut before the partisans of the Australian Open. Dokic’s run in Melbourne ended with the eventual champion Hingis. The Swiss was so impressed by Dokic that he invited the aspiring star to Switzerland as a training partner before the clay season.

After showing quarter-finals at the WTA level in Cairo and Warsaw in the spring, Dokic entered the Wimbledon qualifier, which was ranked number 129 in the world and is still on the rise. She quickly won her three rounds in Roehampton without dropping a set to reserve her place in the main draw.

As it turned out, Dokic’s reward was a rematch of her defeat at the Australian Open against Hingis. The 16-year-old was determined to make a statement on her Wimbledon debut, which would take place in Court 1 on the first Tuesday.

From the start of the match, Dokic dominated the goal line. After Hingis went 2-1 up, Dokic rolled the Swiss star with steam for the rest of the first set as the skillful dropshots of the top seed were often overwhelmed by the screaming winners who came from the Australian thug from all areas of the court.

After Dokic had abandoned five games in a row to take the lead in one set, she continued to push the strikes for the winners in the second set, and Hingis could never get her foot in the door. The Australian drove through the second set, her bankruptcy game finding deep pockets in the corners as she took the world’s number 1 game after game.

Dokic would eventually win 11 games in a row to end the match after a return of the Hingis service was long on the match ball. Qualification took a 6-2, 6-0 win in less than an hour to shock the Wimbledon grounds and achieve their career-defining victory.

“I think I can’t believe I hit her” Dokic said after winning her signaturewho started the draw on the second day of the event.

“”[Hingis has] All the recordings in the book, “added the Aussie.” She is the number 1 in the world, but when I started I played very well. Everything worked today. I knew I had to keep it deep, play with her forehand and beat the winners. I don’t think there was any pressure at all because she is the one who should win. “

THE MEANING: Hingis’ loss of shock was only the third time in tournament history that number 1 had fallen in her opening game at Wimbledon – the only other cases were Margaret Court’s loss to Billie Jean King in 1962 and Graf’s by Lori McNeil in the year was upset in 1994.

“”[Dokic] played a great match, “Hingis admitted after the collision ended.

For Hingis, it was an atypical early exit: before this defeat, the Swiss had reached the semi-finals or, better, any Grand Slam event going back to the 1996 US Open. “It happens to everyone sometimes,” said the world’s best player. “I’m not that disappointed.”

Nevertheless, the Swiss star recovered from their successive stunners at Roland Garros and Wimbledon. Hingis finished No. 1 in the world in 1999 after winning seven individual WTA titles during the season. In 2000 she ended the year as number 1 in the world again and won nine individual titles this season.

After another final defeat in a Grand Slam at the end of 1999 against first-time major champion Serena Williams at the US Open, Hingis could no longer cross the finish line with the champion’s trophy at a single Grand Slam event.

Hingis would play three more finals at the Australian Open over the next three years, but despite continued success at WTA events, the 1999 Australian Open would actually prove to be their last major individual title.

Dokic ended in 1999 as a sensation. After being upset with Hingis, the 16-year-old drove to the Wimbledon quarter-finals and had the chance to be the first female qualifier to reach a Wimbledon semi-final in the Open Era.

However, her fourteen-day breakthrough came to an end with yet another dazzling story when Alexandra Stevenson claimed this trifle when she became the historic Wimbledon qualifying semi-finalist after surviving Dokic in a quarter-final duel.

Despite this defeat, Dokic ended up in the top 50 in 1999 after the year started outside the top 300. The victory over Hingis confirmed her junior success and brought her into the upper class of women’s tennis at the beginning of the new century.

Wimbledon would prove to be the place where Dokic did its best work for several seasons, as she went one round the next year and reached the semi-finals in 2000 before falling for defending champion Lindsay Davenport. Until 2001, Dokic was an integral part of the top 10 WTA rankings in the next few years.

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