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Your support makes all the difference.Martina Hingis coasted to her fourth title at the Porsche Grand Prix today, while handing rising 17-year-old Kim Clijsters a tennis lesson.
Martina Hingis coasted to her fourth title at the Porsche Grand Prix today, while handing rising 17-year-old Kim Clijsters a tennis lesson.
Hingis, in top shape after a month layoff, needed just 52 minutes to beat the Belgium player 6-0, 6-3, at the $535,000 event in Filderstadt, Germany.
Clijsters, the tour's 1999 newcomer-of-the-year, had upset two top 10 players to reach the final as a wild card entry and quickly became the crowd favorite at the event.
But the hard-hitting teen-ager made too many errors to mount a serious challenge to the world No. 1, lofting a lob long to end the match.
"I've got many years of tennis to play, so it was O.K.," Clijsters said of the loss. "It's been a great tournament for me. I was a little tired but Martina was just too good for me today."
Clijsters, who will crack the top 30 after reaching the final,needed three sets to oust both world No. 6 Conchita Martinez and No. 7 Nathalie Tauziat of France. She also beat sixth-seeded Anna Kournikova.
Hingis was playing her first event since a dramatic three-set loss to Venus Williams at the U.S. Open. But the layoff didn't show as the Swiss player swept her three matches by dropping just 10 games.
She took home dlrs 87,000, cracking the dlrs 2 million mark for the year and passing Williams.
Clijsters wasted two break chances early in the second set against Hingis on an error and a hard overhead by the Swiss.
Hingis, now 20, then charged out at 4-3 and broke Clijster's serve at love, blistering a return down the line and then using three errors from the Belgium.
Clijsters father is the well-known Belgium soccer player Leo Clijsters.
Clijsters was the youngest player ever to capture two titles in her first nine tournament and at 16 was the youngest player at the 1999 U.S. Open. She led eventual winner Serena Williams 5-3 in the third set before losing in the third round.
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