Martina Hingis has done just about everything possible this year.
The Swiss teenager continued to build on her incredible season with a hard-fought 7-6 (7-4), 6-4 victory over Monica Seles Sunday in the final of the $450,000 Toshiba Classic.The victory, worth $79,000, was the ninth title for the top-ranked Hingis in 10 tournaments this season. It also ran her 1997 record to an impressive 54-1.
"You never know what's going to happen," said Hingis. "I just keep winning tournaments over and over."
Hingis, who won both the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, is easily the most dominant player on the WTA Tour. She proved it again in beating Seles, ranked third in the world.
Although the score was close, Hingis' game rose during the crucial points.
"A few times she had to play some great shots," said the second-seeded Seles. "But other times I gave her too many points. She played better than me on key points."
Hingis, 16, has proved to be nearly untouchable, even against Seles. Many observers feel Seles offers the best challenge to Hingis' supremacy.
But Hingis is undefeated in five lifetime meetings against the former No. 1 player. Four of the wins have come this season; in their last match, Hingis scored a 6-7, (2-7), 7-5, 6-4 victory in the French Open semifinals.
"I thought she played her best tennis ever against me today," Hingis said.
But it was still not enough to push Seles over the top.
"She's playing some great tennis," Seles said. "She's a great player who is very tough mentally."
It's the way Seles used to be when she was ranked No. 1 at the age of 17 in 1991.
"(Hingis) has the confidence to go for shots," Seles said.
Said Hingis: "I really felt that I wanted this match. Maybe because I've always beaten her."
Seles had her chances. She served for the first set at 5-4.
But Seles dropped her serve at love and committed the second of two double faults in the game on break point.
"I got a little flustered when a couple of serves went against me," Seles admitted.
Hingis jumped out to a 5-2 lead in the tiebreak and closed it out when Seles hit a forehand long.
"I think it was important that I got ahead early in the tiebreak," Hingis said.
At 4-4 in the second set, Hingis scored a crucial break in the ninth game as Seles made an unforced error when she netted a forehand.
Hingis served out the match at love when Seles' forehand return went wide.
Hingis then teammed with Spain's Arantxa Sanchez Vicario to win the doubles title 6-3, 7-5 over Amy Frazier of Rochester Hills, Mich., and Kimberly Po of Rolling Hills, Calif.
In Montreal, surprising Chris Woodruff of Knoxville, Tenn., captured the du Maurier Canadian Open for his first professional title.
The unseeded Woodruff used aggressive play and a strong serve to knock off sixth-seeded Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, the French Open champion, 7-5, 6-4, 6-3.
"This is my biggest tennis accomplishment so far," said the 24-year-old Woodruff, the 1993 NCAA champion from Tennessee who had lost in his previous two ATP Tour tournament finals. "The first win is the toughest. I had a couple of chances last year. Now, hopefully, I'll get a few more titles."
Woodruff, who was ranked 57th in the world and will move into the top 30 when the new rankings are released today, earlier in the tournament upset 16th-seeded Jan Siemerink, No. 2 Goran Ivanisevic, No. 7 Mark Philippoussis and No. 4 Yevgeny Kafelnikov.
In Maria Lankowitz, Austria, fifth-seeded Barbara Schett of Austria won the $107,500 Styria Open by defeating No. 6 Henrieta Nagyova of Slovakia 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic captured the Grolsch Open in Amsterdam, Netherlands, by edging top-seeded Carlos Moya of Spain in the final, 7-6 (7-4), 7-6 (7-5), 6-7 (4-7), 6-2.
In Colorado Springs, Colo., Jimmy Connors won the $370,000 The Challenge over-35 men's event by defeating John McEnroe 7-6 (7-3), 6-0.