Tennis: Graf forced to go distance with Hingis

Steffi Graf, the world No 1, finished the year by overcoming a spirited challenge yesterday from the Swiss teenager Martina Hingis, 6- 3, 4-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0, to retain her title at the Chase Championships in New York yesterday.

Graf battled for nearly three hours at Madison Square Garden in her second consecutive five-set final at the season-ending event to stop the 16-year- old challenger and win the tournament for a fifth time. Hingis was attempting to become only the second player in the tournament's history to win in her first appearance. The Australian Evonne Goolagong did it in 1974.

Graf, 27, finished the year on top of the world rankings for a fourth year running. She won all three Grand Slams she played: the French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open. Her $500,000 (pounds 300,000) prize money here raised her earnings this season to more than $2.5m.

Graf has now won the Championships in 1987, 1989 and 1993 as well as last year, when she beat fellow German Anke Huber in five sets.

The seventh-seeded Hingis played with poise and grit, especially in the final game of the fourth set when she forced the match into a fifth set.

Despite cramping in her left thigh which forced her to leave the court for a three-minute injury time-out on the previous changeover, Hingis kept running and hitting winners. She finally broke serve in a marathon 18-point 10th game to take the fourth set after Graf had netted a backhand.

Hingis had started cramping badly in the left thigh after serving a double- fault for 15-15 at 5-3 as Graf was cutting into a 5-1 lead. Hingis flexed her leg and then dropped flat on her back on the court to stretch her aching muscles. She got a delay-of-game warning from the chair umpire Jane Harvey, then lost the next three points in a row.

In the final set, Graf showed no mercy to her tenacious foe, mixing in drop shots along with her usual barrage of groundstroke winners and powerful serves to wrap up the victory in a rapid 23-minute set. Hingis managed to win just eight points in the final four games. Graf also played in some distress, icing her chronically sore left knee midway through the fourth set.

"Wherever she goes, she wins. She's so unbelievable," Hingis said afterwards. "Martina had an incredible year," Graf said. "She's only 16 and I think that is an incredible accomplishment."

When the new rankings are released today, she will now be ranked No 4, trailing Graf, who remains as No 1, and the joint No 2s, Monica Seles, Arantxa Sanchez Vicario and Jana Novotna.