MARTINA HINGIS stretched her unbeaten 1997 record to 19 victories when she won the $480,000 Paris Open yesterday - but she was made to fight all the way by determined Anke Huber of Germany.
The 16-year-old Swiss player, who last month became the youngest winner of a Grand Slam singles title this century by triumphing at the Australian Open, finally clinched a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory in one hour 50 minutes.
Hingis had expected a tough match against the 22-year-old third-seeded German who had taken her the full distance in all five of their previous encounters - and that's exactly what she got.
In a match full of tense, hard-hitting baseline rallies, Hingis had to survive several crises. Notoriously ruthless and imperial once in front, she uncharacteristically let things slip after racing 3-0 clear in the first set.
And although the Swiss girl went on to take the set, the same fierce groundstrokes which Huber had used to destroy Hingis's doubles partner Jana Novotna in the semi-finals 24 hours earlier, again began to find their targets.
Huber fought her way to 3-1 and 5-2 clear in the second, surviving a warning after flinging her racket to the floor in frustration after one line-call went against her, and matched Hingis stroke for stroke at the start of the third.
The second-ranked Hingis, who is fast closing the gap on world number-one Steffi Graf, fought like a tiger to hold her serve from 15-30 down in a thrilling seventh game but after forging 4-3 clear she didn't look back, especially after Huber double-faulted twice for 0-30 in the next game and went on to drop service leaving Hingis to serve out for the match.
Hingis's 19 wins this year includes the walk-over against Graf in the Tokyo final two weeks ago.
