Hingis Stands in the Way of the Williamses

Seventeen-year-old Martina Hingis has spent a lot of time on the court with the Williams family in a fairly short period. There’s an ongoing teen rivalry with 18-year-old Venus Williams and a fledgling one with 16-year-old Serena Williams.

Increasingly, Hingis is linked to the sisters. After she defeated Serena, 6-4, 6-1, on Friday in the Acura Classic quarterfinals at Manhattan Beach, one television graphic had a telling statistic.

Hingis: 5-2 vs. Williams sisters in 1998.

You sort of had a vision of Hingis playing Venus and Serena at the same time. And of course there is the third member of the family, Richard Williams, who put himself in the middle of the things before the Hingis-Serena Williams match, saying on television that his youngest daughter would “kick her . . . going and coming.”

After winning, Hingis suggested the pre-match talk was just that.

Don’t believe the hype.

“It wasn’t such a big match. Everybody else was making a big match of it,” she said.

Then she moved on to analyze Serena’s power game.

“In tennis, you have to be able to move and hit the ball a couple of times, not just hit it as hard as you can,” Hingis said. “She just tried to hit it hard and missed them by five inches, closer sometimes. It’s not only about hitting the ball. It’s kind of a game. A little bit like chess.

“It was very strange playing her. You never knew what was going to come from her. It’s like a treasure box. Once, she would hit off a great return and miss the next two. You can’t really tell what she’s going to do.”

Hingis said her relationship with Serena is different than her dealings with Venus, who has withdrawn from this week’s du Maurier Open in Montreal because of a knee injury suffered in the recent Toshiba Classic in Carlsbad.

“[It’s] better with her than with Venus,” she said. “When she [Serena] is alone, she always says hello, she always asks me something.”

She also spoke about Serena’s place in the Williams family.

“Everybody is concentrated on Venus right now because she’s No. 5 in the world,” Hingis said. “It seems like now she [Serena] got the chance to play a tournament herself and not always play against Venus.

“Everybody was saying, ‘Now Venus has to become No. 1.’ And Serena was always aside. And now she had the opportunity and she had to face me, so that’s kind of bad luck.”

SERENA SAYS

Serena Williams is searching for a new mixed doubles partner for the U.S. Open.

What about Luis Lobo? The Argentine doubles specialist helped her reach the French Open final.

What about Max Mirnyi? The 21-year-old from Belarus helped her win her first Grand Slam event title, at Wimbledon.

It’s all about nationality.

“At the Open, I want to play with an American,” she said. “So I’m looking forward to that. I’m working on it right now. Just calling people. There are a couple Americans out there with big serves.”

Lobo and Mirnyi will have to look elsewhere and may have to create a club: Spurned by Serena.

“I just want to play with an American at the Open because I’m an American and I want to do well,” Serena said. “Venus is playing with an American [Justin Gimelstob], and I think I should play with an American.”

SO UNSATISFIED

In the aftermath of the subpar performance against Hingis, it was difficult for Serena Williams to be upbeat about her swift ascension in the rankings. She finished last year by breaking into the top 100, and has climbed steadily since then to No. 21 in the world.

For her, that’s not enough.

“I guess I’m more or less an insatiable person,” Williams said. “It’s hard for me to be satisfied. I always want the best. I feel right now I’m actually better right now than what my ranking is.

“I guess it is a good move for me. I have to get rid of this insatiable-ness inside of me. I should be happy about that. But I want to be better. I want to keep moving. I don’t want to stop.”

STRANGE DAYS, INDEED

If Goran Ivanisevic is in an event, something different is bound to happen . . . eventually.

Last week at Toronto, Ivanisevic needed six stitches for the wound on the bridge of his nose. His doubles partner, Mark Philippoussis, sported a bruise on his forehand.

The doubles partners butted each other. And no, it had nothing to do with a disagreement over doubles philosophy, and they weren’t pretending to be headbangers in a heavy metal group.

If it’s Ivanisevic, you can assume it has something to do with soccer.

The doubles partners tried to head a tennis ball in their second-round match against Daniel Nestor and Mark Knowles. Instead, their heads collided and they had to withdraw from the match.