Tennis: Capriati retains title

Jennifer Capriati staged a dramatic fightback to defend her Australian Open women’s title by defeating Martina Hingis 4-6 7-6 (9/7) 6-2 in Melbourne.

The American number one seed saved four championship points in a tense second set before finally overpowering her Swiss opponent.

Hingis, the third seed, survived a spell of the jitters to take the opening set in 33 minutes.

After leading 3-0 and 5-1 and blowing a set-point on her own serve at 5-3, she finally ground down Capriati by breaking the American’s serve for a third time.

Capriati was incensed by a dubious call in the second game of the second set and was lucky to escape censure after firing off a volley of obscenities as she called for the line-judge to be replaced.

Back on the court, Hingis was looking far more relaxed as she raced into a 4-0 lead, giving the American the runaround as she dominated with some superb baseline strokes.

A combination of Capriati’s guts and Hingis’ nerves saw the American battle back to force a tie-break, however, saving three championship points along the way.

A fourth went begging at 7-6 in the tie-break and Capriati eventually prevailed 9-7 after a further 65 minutes of action.

Both players were given a 10-minute break ahead of the deciding set due to the soaring temperatures.

That was never going to be enough for Hingis to regain her composure, however, and she surrendered tamely, with Capriati converting her first championship point at 40-15 when already 5-2 up.