| MELBOURNE, Australia -- Martina Hingis was branded a bad
loser on Friday after she suffered her first defeat at the Australian Open
in four years in the final of the women's doubles.
Top seeds Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs beat world number one Hingis
and French partner Mary Pierce 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to claim their first Grand
Slam title.
It was the first match the 19-year-old Swiss, winner of three consecutive
singles and doubles titles, had lost in Melbourne since 1996.
So disgusted was Hingis with the defeat that she refused to address
the crowd at the trophy ceremony, stoking memories of her petulant performance
after Steffi Graf beat her in the singles final at the French Open last
year.
Australian Stubbs and her American partner, who had narrowly lost two
semifinals to Hingis and partners in 1998 and 1999, were angered by the
teenager's reaction in the locker room.
"All she kept telling me was how bad she played today," Stubbs said.
"How about a little credit as well?"
"It's very hard for these players sometimes to give their opponents
credit just because they've had a bad day. It's so annoying," Stubbs said.
Hingis plays American Lindsay Davenport in the singles final on Saturday.
Raymond and Stubbs, regular doubles partners since 1996 with 11 titles
together, stuck to their game plan to drill the ball to Pierce but the
Frenchwoman held her own.
It was Hingis who turned out to be the weak link on a center court she
refers to as home.
"Now you know how other humans feel," Stubbs crowed at Hingis who dropped
her service twice in the final set.
Hingis and Pierce, seeded third together, managed to fend off two match
points with big passing shots, leaving Stubbs flat on the ground on the
second match point.
But the top seeds eventually took the match when Hingis slapped a forehand
return long.
"Of course it's disappointing for me. I didn't play my best," said Hingis.
The Swiss teenager first won the Australian Open doubles title in 1997
with Natasha Zvereva, then again with Mirjana Lucic, and last year with
Anna Kournikova.
But this year was not to be. After claiming on Thursday, "I beat all
the players," Hingis said on Friday that losing the doubles title was just
as bad as losing in the singles.
"Of course I don't feel that great right now. You never want to lose,
not in a Grand Slam final," she said.
"I'm going to go out there and hit a little bit more. I don't want to
finish off the day like this."
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