Martina Hingis' Court One curse struck again yesterday as she provided the Wimbledon Championships with another seismic first round shock.
The world number one and top seed blamed injury for her 6-4 6-2 defeat to Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual, but no amount of excuses can cover up the fact that after ten Grand Slams without success, Hingis' crown as the best female tennis player in the world is slipping.
Melbourne Park in 1999 was the last time the Swiss 20-year-old tasted major success, but that Australian Open triumph was followed five months later by her unforgettable first-round exit to Jelena Dokic.
She will relinquish her official grasp on the number one ranking if Venus Williams repeats her All England Club victory of last year, but of more pressing concern for Hingis is if and how she can reinvent her game and claim the sixth Grand Slam title which as recently as two years ago appeared an inevitability.
Ruano Pascual, a 27-year-old who had reached the fourth round at Wimbledon in 1997, but who like most Spaniards saved her best performances for clay, demolished Hingis in much the same manner as the then unheralded Dokic had done two years previously.
For the manner of her defeat, Hingis said, there was ''no excuse'' but she went on to blame a back injury for this latest large setback.
''Two or three days ago I didn't know if I was going to come here at all and today I was just afraid of moving,'' Hingis said.
''I knew I had a chance against Virginia and if I had to play some other player I wouldn't have come here. I thought maybe it would be good enough, and I did everything I could but it came out this way.''
What is more apparent is the injury such a dreadful performance will have done to Hingis' pride.
Her game was scattered with mistakes which allowed her opponent to claim the first set, but as the going ought to have got tougher for a player on the brink of her career-best win, it was the world's number one who showed signs of the mental frailty which has dogged her in the past.
She served three double faults in a row to hand her opponent the crucial first set break on a plate in the fifth game, and was double-broken to go 3-0 down in the second.
Hingis broke back once, but spectacularly failed to capitalise on any butterflies which were sure to be fluttering around in her opponent's stomach, going a second break down again, splaying forehands long and wide and flopping countless volleys into the net.
Memories flashed back to the 1999 French Open final which immediately preceded her Dokic debacle, and which can now be emphatically marked out as a turning point in her glittering career.
Then, Hingis was booed off court after her tempestuous behaviour against Steffi Graf.
Her tantrums made headlines around the world and the message was clear: the golden girl was beginning to lose her sheen.
Her personal problems subsequently dragged behind her like a ball and chain. She spoke at the French Open earlier this month of past problems with boyfriends, the latest of which is the lawyer who recently ensured her long-time stalker was sentenced to jail.
She is also suing her former sponsors Sergio Tacchini for £30million over shoes she claims damaged her feet.
Those feet scuffed around Court One yesterday but Hingis denied any of those issues were factors in her current plight.
''I don't have a mental problem,'' she insisted. ''It just seems like either I do really well here or I lose in the first round.
''I just need some time to recover my body and soul. Now I will have time to do it.''
For Ruano Pascual yesterday's victory heaped further gloss on a month which also saw her claim doubles and mixed doubles titles at the French Open in Roland Garros.
She said: ''Two weeks ago I won the Grand Slam doubles. Next I come to a Grand Slam and beat the world number one. I am dreaming now. It is unbelievable.''
Hingis must seek solace in the story of Jennifer Capriati, who fell into a far deeper chasm but continued to extricate herself from a murky chapter in her life yesterday by moving comfortably into the second round.
Capriati is an inspiration to all, not least the world number one she aims to replace, after recovering from a career-threatening period involving shoplifting and drugs offences and winning back-to-back Grand Slams in Melbourne and Paris.
The third leg is still on after a relatively straightforward 6-3 6-2 win over Venezuela's Maria Alejandra Vento on Centre Court yesterday.
The American had made an awful start, broken to 15 in the first game of the match, and a number of misjudged drives from the baseline prevented her recovering the initiative until the sixth game.
But as she found her feet so her opponent contributed to her own downfall with her poor serving. Broken for 3-3, Vento then hit three double faults in her following game to give Capriati the break and effectively the set. From then on it got easier for the comeback kid, who insisted she was not feeling the pressure generated by the hype surrounding her quest for the third leg of the grand slam of Grand Slams.
''So far I haven't felt the expectation but we'll see what happens,'' Capriati said. ''I know for sure that there's going to be more attention but I'll handle it.''
Serena Williams was the first player to reach the second round, the fifth seed taking just 40 minutes to demolish Rita Kuti Kis of Hungary 6-1 6-0.
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