THERE WAS some good news for Britain's beleaguered bovine population in the wake of John Major's big EU success dealing them another blow, with a second round victory for 15 year old Martian Hingis at Wimbledon yesterday.
The Slovakian born and Swiss based starlet's usual experience on grass apparently comes from practising in her adopted country's mountain meadows where "the cows are the people." She feels at home with those sort of onlookers and so perhaps if she does well here at Wimbledon, she'll put on an exhibition for one or two of the local beasts who are in far more desperate need of diversion than their Swiss counterparts.
And doing well is far from out of the question for the world number 18 who is, by all accounts, the next big thing in the women's game. Admittedly quite a few child stars have come and gone on the tour over the years, with most having fallen victim to the terrible pressures that this bizarre world exerts upon its inhabitants. But Hingis, thus far at least, seems to be progressing steadily towards the daylight on the far side of her teenage years under the watchful eye and positive guidance of her mother, coach and former player, Melanie.
Not that there haven't been some signs of emerging tensions with the youngster deciding recently that she didn't really fancy practising much any more and opting instead to play more doubles events. That's bad news for the local cattle but, to be fair, compared to the unfortunate Jennifer Capriati, she's still the model pro.
At her first senior Wimbledon last year she was overpowered in the first round by Steffi Graf but, having seen off Jana Nejedly 6-2, 6-2 at the same stage this time around, she yesterday cut the number of games lost to one a set on the way to a very comfortable victory over Britain's Rachel Viollet. Her opponent, a wild card entry, is the daughter of former Manchester United striker Dennis and showed quite a knack for finding the net herself although, in fairness she was simply out of her depth against such talented opposition.
The win keeps the Swiss star on course to meet Graf again in the fourth round and, with a win over the top seed already this season at the Italian Open, it is the prospect of that match that was clearly already occupying her mind through her second round win yesterday.
"I felt I controlled the match completely in the second set when I felt very good and so I took the chance to try some things that you have to do on grass," she said afterwards of her many approaches to the net.
"I wanted to do better than last year when my championship was very short and now I am hoping to do well against Steffi if I meet her, so I have tried to get used to the grass in matches like this which should be easy for me."
Quick around the court and with a fine passing forehand, Hingis certainly seems ideally suited to the Wimbledon surface and assuming she gets past Linda Wild in the third round and the German survives the challenge of Nicole Arendt, the pair could treat us all to quite a match.
On her second appearance of the week, the 27 year old champion turned in a very solid performance to beat Nathalie Daudone 7-5, 6-3. And at the press conference (where she was asked, I kid you not, if she would have taken any of the German penalties differently) she seemed to be justifiably pleased with the progress she is making in the event despite continued difficulties with her knee.
Against the Belgian her service game was strong with her opponent failing to get a third of them back over the net and the top seed producing just one double fault all afternoon.
Graf exploited the weakness of her opponent's backhand to considerable effect, pushing her wide and doing well at the net and with at least one more match to come before she is likely to face some more threatening opposition, all the components of her game appear to be coming together ominously well.
Less impressive, meanwhile, was eighth seed Lindsay Davenport who became the latest of the big names to make an early exit. The 20 year old bit the turf against the big serving Larisa Neiland in a match lasting just under an hour and the Latvian is rewarded with a place in the third round where she will face Russia's Elena Likhovtseva.
Davenport, who also made an early departure at Eastbourne, was under pressure virtually from the outset after dropping her first two service games and after missing a couple of chances to break her way back into the proceedings, the American was worn down by her opponent who came away a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
