Majoli is prepared to 'eat grass' in do-or-die effort

John Roberts on modest ambitions of the new French Open champion

After confounding us by overwhelming Martina Hingis, 6-4, 6-2, to win the French Open women's singles title in her first Grand Slam final, Iva Majoli's mind turned to partying before approaching her next, comparatively modest, objective.

"My dream," the 19-year-old Croat said, "is to win in the first round at Wimbledon. I have never won a match at Wimbledon, not juniors, not doubles, not singles. I said to myself: 'OK, I'm going to die on the court at Wimbledon just to win that first round."

So how does she intend to prepare to do or die? "I'm going to eat grass," Majoli said, laughing. Her crash diet is due to start at Eastbourne next week.

Hingis, while not exactly eating humble pie, acknowledged that she had been comprehensively outplayed on the clay here in Paris by her friend Majoli, the ninth seed. The 16-year-old Swiss world No 1 had been unable to find either the strength or the inspiration to stem Majoli's deep, angled shots or to undermine her opponent's confidence.

Fatigue played a part in Hingis's disappointing finale after winning 40 consecutive matches this year. But the Australian Open champion was able to rationalise this, reminding everybody that she came into the tournament only six weeks after surgery to her left knee and that her goal had been to reach the semi-finals.

Competing in the doubles added to Hingis's workload, her partnership with Arantxa Sanchez Vicario flourishing until Friday's semi-finals, in which they lost to Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, 10-8 in the third set.

Hingis's Wimbledon plans remain unchanged. She does not intend to arrive in England until three days before the championships start on 23 June. "I've had enough of tennis for a while right now," she says. "Well, not enough of tennis, but enough matches. You could see it on the court today. I don't feel like I want to play another tournament next week. I don't want to be tired for Wimbledon."

Majoli was defeated by Steffi Graf in the fourth round when making her French Open debut in 1993, the year Hingis won the junior singles title at the age of 12. "I think for myself it's better that success didn't come before now," Majoli said, "because I felt I wasn't ready for anything too big at the age of 16 or 17. Everyone is different. I think Martina is really handling the pressure great. When I was 16, I was more like 13. Martina at 16 is like a grown up."

On Saturday, Hingis looked her age and Majoli gave the mature performance. She did not allow her concentration to waver or her nerve to falter after Hingis took a bathroom break at 3-2 in the second set (Hingis was cautioned after throwing her racket in the next game), or when the Swiss took a time out for treatment to her aching thighs at 5-2.

"Maybe I did think, 'did she really have to to go to the bathroom?'," Majoli said. "On the other hand, there's nothing I could do except try to relax. On the court we all want to win. Maybe you do some things you don't mean to do, but you do it because maybe you feel it's going to help you.

"There is this momentum on the court. You can't really think if you're friends, or whatever. It's a final, and we both want to fight as hard as we can to try to win the match."

Majoli was determined that nothing would be allowed to disturb her momentum once she recovered from a set and 0-4 down against Lindsay Davenport in the fourth round. "That was the match I got really lucky," Majoli said. Talent and physical fitness took over from there.

"I know I've been injured, but I don't want to take anything away from Iva," Hingis said. "She never gave me the chance to do anything. She played her best tennis in this tournament. She served very well and she had very good length in the groundstrokes.

"I had a great year so far. It's frustrating to lose here in the final, but my career doesn't end right now. There will be Wimbledon in two weeks, so I'm going to try to be better for that one. I have two weeks off to relax. I'm going to be ready there."

Hingis's injury was caused by a fall from a horse. Her agent, Damir Keretic, was asked if a clause forbidding her to ride was likely to be inserted in her contract. He smiled. "Martina would rather write a clause that forbids her to play tennis."