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Happy New Year from Oz Martina Fans!!!!!!

1K views 23 replies 6 participants last post by  jomar 
#1 ·
Well, it's 12:44 am January 1st 2002 Oz time, so i want to wish everyone in the forum a Happy New Year!!!!! I went into the city (Sydney) and watched the fireworks at 9:00pm, and then came back and watched the 12:00 fireworks on tv!! Hope u all enjoy your last day of 2001 and all the best for the New Year! <img src="graemlins/bounce.gif" border="0" alt="[Bounce]" />

Also wishing Martina all the best for the New Year, i've heard she arrived here already!!! Yay!!! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0">
 
#2 ·
Don't know if u guys have seen this article or not. U probably have. I can't be bothered to scan the rest of this forum to see if it has been posted or not, so i'll just put it hear anyway...

Hingis arrives repaired and ready for the long climb back to the summit.

By Ben Wyld

Martina Hingis arrived in Sydney early yesterday confident of a full <br />recovery from an ankle injury that cost her top spot in the women's <br />rankings.For the first time in five years, Hingis heads into next week's <br />$1.7 million adidas International at Homebush Bay not as the planet's No <br />1-ranked female tennis player - only its No 4.

The defending women's singles champion said her right ankle, damaged during <br />a semi-final match against Lindsay Davenport at Filderstadt in Germany last <br />October, had stood up well during practice sessions. "We will see how I go <br />when I hit the first ball in my first match. I will do my best," Hingis <br />said.

Not since the summer of 1996-97, when Hingis came to Australia as the tour's <br />hottest 16-year-old, has she been ranked as low and while she said yesterday <br />she hopes to do well this year, indications from the previous 12 months are <br />that her best may not be good enough to add to her five grand slam singles <br />titles.Troubled routinely by the sport's heavy hitters throughout 2001, <br />Hingis won just three singles titles - the most recent in February - and her <br />results indicate she can no longer out-think and out-manoeuvre stronger <br />opponents in successive matches.

Last year Hingis finished 0-3 against rejuvenated American Jennifer Capriati <br />and, although she enjoyed a 3-2 record against the Williams sisters, Venus <br />and Serena routed Hingis in straight sets in Miami and New York following <br />Hingis's early-season wins in Australia.

More concerning for the Hingis camp were decisive losses to tour veterans <br />Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario and rising stars Kim Clijsters, <br />Amelie Mauresmo and Elena Dementieva. The vulnerable Hingis second serve is <br />easy pickings for the game's heavyweight hitters, while her accurate, <br />probing groundstroke game has crumbled in major tournaments under the strain <br />of playing consecutive matches against power players the likes of Capriati, <br />Davenport and the Williams sisters. Hingis's season reached its low point at <br />Wimbledon where she carried a back injury to a humiliating first-round <br />straight-sets defeat to Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual, then ranked 83rd in <br />the world.

It was at Wimbledon that Davenport implored Hingis to adopt a more <br />aggressive style, lest the game would pass her by: "At some point Martina's <br />going to have to incorporate that in her game to win slams or tournaments on <br />a more regular basis." Injury played its role in re-shuffling the rankings <br />at the end of the season as Hingis, out with torn ligaments in her right <br />ankle, lost her mantle as the world's No1 to Capriati - briefly - until <br />Davenport claimed that honour at the last tournament of the year, the WTA <br />Tour Championships.

The early signs for 2002 are more ominous still. Venus Williams has <br />signalled her intentions on making a serious attempt for the Australian Open <br />by playing in this week's Australian women's hardcourt event at the Gold <br />Coast. The elder Williams sister last year achieved a ranking of No 3 based <br />on 12 events - five events fewer than Capriati and Davenport, and six fewer <br />than Hingis. Davenport has, in fact, conceded that Williams's relative <br />inactivity is the only reason she isn't sitting atop the rankings list: "If <br />Venus played even close to a full schedule, I don't see right now how <br />anybody else could be No 1."

Hingis will be aiming for her third adidas International title, having won <br />last year and in 1997. The tournament, which starts on Sunday, is headed by <br />Davenport and Capriati and boasts 16 of the top 20 women in the world.
 
#4 ·
OMG! What a long post, martinafan! <img src="wink.gif" border="0"> Ours is tonight, so I'll wait to say it tronight! <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
 
#5 ·
Yeah it was long, and whats more, it remained on track!!!! lol!!! When it comes to Martina, i tend to go on a bit! Especially when it comes to Martina being in my home town!

Happy New Year again to all!!!! (see Pea, i can remain ontrack unlike some!!!) <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">
 
#6 ·
Hi martina-fan <img src="graemlins/wavey.gif" border="0" alt="[Wavey]" /> <br />hehe unlike some!<br />Well if that isnt true I dont know what is!

Happy New Year!!(unless here in Holland its still 2001, but ok)

You are going to to watch Marti next week?
 
#8 ·
Chris, stay on track!! Pfff! <img src="tongue.gif" border="0">

About 6 more hours to go here! <img src="redface.gif" border="0">
 
#9 ·
Originally posted by *Martina_fan*:<br /><strong>Well, it's 12:44 am January 1st 2002 Oz time, so i want to wish everyone in the forum a Happy New Year!!!!! I went into the city (Sydney) and watched the fireworks at 9:00pm, and then came back and watched the 12:00 fireworks on tv!! Hope u all enjoy your last day of 2001 and all the best for the New Year! <img src="graemlins/bounce.gif" border="0" alt="[Bounce]" />

Also wishing Martina all the best for the New Year, i've heard she arrived here already!!! Yay!!! <img src="biggrin.gif" border="0"> </strong><hr></blockquote>

I just read another article (diff. than the one posted below) that said Marti was going to the 9 pm fireworks too! Sounded like she was going to take it easy this yr as far as celebrating goes! Anyways, Happy New Year everybody!
 
#10 ·
A fresh start indeed for all of us!!!!

go marti!!!! go smartis!!!!!!!!<font color=red>
 
#12 ·
Hi Sacha! happi new year to you. please extend your this greetings as well to Ms. Lily Fong and the rest of the guys.
 
#13 ·
Oh My God, Martina was at my fireworks?!?!?!?! And i didn't get to see her!! Still, it would be hard to spot 1 person among 1/2 a million people, even if i knew she was going!! Well, there's no better place to celebrate the New Year than here in Sydney, home of the best New Years fireworks!!

Go Martina!!!!
 
#14 ·
Happy New Year EVERYONE!!!!
 
#18 ·
I'm taking notes of your multiple posts. <img src="redface.gif" border="0"> <img src="wink.gif" border="0">
 
#20 ·
I found that other article u were talking about b4 Smash.

I may as well post this one too:

Hingis back in the hunt for top spot while Stubbs pursues a grand plan

By Ben Wyld

It's a new year and, like most, defending adidas International champion Martina Hingis has resolutions.

Not that she's prepared to give anything away, however.

"I have no specific goals ... just to do my best," she said.

"I'm a very simple person in a way."

And Hingis - battling the effects of jet lag - yesterday planned on bringing in the new year in subdued fashion.

"I'll probably just make it to the nine o'clock celebrations [fireworks]," she said.

Under the watchful eye of mother/coach Melanie Molitor, world No4 Hingis went through her paces during a mid-morning workout yesterday at Sydney's White City and later said she was enjoying the break from the spotlight of being the world's No1.

"I'm coming back from injury," she said. "I'm not the hunted anymore, I'm the hunter again. It's a nice position to be in.''

Hingis tested her recently injured right ankle during the practice session, hoping to acclimatise to the Australian summer and the thick smoke haze which continued to envelope the city from the surrounding bushfires.

"I heard a lot about it [Sydney's bushfires] overseas," she said. "Coming into Sydney I could smell it on the plane's air conditioning." The workout also gave glimpses of Hingis's varied game which, she said, she would persist with against stronger rivals also battling recent injury and indifferent form.

"With surgery you don't know how things are going to work out," she said. "My speed will be important ... Lindsay [Davenport] was injured and couldn't play her last match and Jennifer [Capriati] wasn't playing that great at the end of the year either."

Australian doubles specialist Rennae Stubbs also practised at White City yesterday and later singled out the French Open doubles title as her main goal for 2002.

A win on the slow clay in Paris would complete a career doubles grand slam for Stubbs, and her playing partner, American Lisa Raymond, who won Wimbledon and the US Open last year and the Australian Open doubles crown in 2000.

"The grand slams are where the motivation lies now and to sustain our No1 ranking," she said.

The outspoken Sydneysider said she was also looking forward to a possible return to Australia's Fed Cup team under new captain, Australian tennis legend Evonne Goolagong Cawley.

Stubbs criticised outgoing Fed Cup captain Lesley Bowrey, and co-selectors Nicole Bradtke and Liz Smylie, for her omission from the team after her Wimbledon doubles triumph.

Bowrey said the decision to omit Stubbs, leading up to the Fed Cup final in Madrid last November, was based on her limited experience with Australian partners and the need for a variety of singles options.

Though Stubbs was named in the squad for the Madrid final, she was unavailable to play due to a broken wrist.

"The biggest disappointment of 2001 was not being on the team," she said.

"Evonne's a nice person ... she's a positive person. With Lesley, there were too many years of the same person, it was time for a change."

French Davis Cup hero Nicolas Escude also arrived in Sydney yesterday. The 25-year-old returns to Australia after France's shock defeat of the host nation at Melbourne Park in November.

Having set up the Davis Cup victory with an upset win over world No1 Lleyton Hewitt in the first singles match, and then sealing a French victory by defeating Wayne Arthurs in the decisive fifth rubber, Escude enters next week's tournament as one of the favourites.

The 27th-ranked Escude will be joined by Davis Cup teammates Sebastien Grosjean, a semi-finalist last year, Arnaud Clement, and Fabrice Santoro.

The $1.7million tournament starts at Homebush Bay on Sunday.
 
#22 ·
LOL@Pea I've noticed that too.hehehe

thanks for the article. Our Marti is ready IMO. <img src="graemlins/angel.gif" border="0" alt="[Angel]" />
 
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