Conchita Martinez, the Wimbledon champion, overpowered 14-year-old Martina Hingis 6-1, 6-0 to win the women's Hamburg Open tournament yesterday, ending a superb run of results for the young Swiss.
Martinez proved too strong in all departments for a visibly overawed Hingis, who was playing in her first senior final.
She never had a chance to unleash her pinpoint groundstrokes and instead made a series of unforced errors. But Hingis, who had defeated the world No 5, No 20 and No 10 - Jana Novotna, Judith Wiesner and Anke Huber - on her way to the final, was still happy after her thrashing. "It was a great week for me and it was wonderful to take part in the final here," she said.
Martinez was also content with her convincing clay court warm-up for the French Open which starts later this month and put part of her success down to her new coach, Carlos Kirmayr. She has won 16 straight matches since starting to work with the Brazilian.
n Results, Sporting Digest, page 29
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