Hingis Isn’t Horsing Around

MELBOURNE, Australia —  A day after tumbling off a horse, Martina Hingis blithely returned to the business of winning the Australian Open.

Fourth-seeded Hingis, 16, seeking to become the youngest Grand Slam singles champion this century, advanced to a semifinal match against Mary Joe Fernandez by defeating Romanian Irina Spirlea, 7-5, 6-2, Wednesday.

The 14th-seeded Fernandez, twice an Australian Open finalist, won when pain-wracked Dominique van Roost tearfully quit because of a pulled abdominal muscle while trailing, 7-5, 4-0.

In the day’s only men’s match, No. 5 Thomas Muster showed he may be ready to win a major title on a surface other than clay as he defeated No. 3 Goran Ivanisevic, 6-4, 6-2, 6-3. Ivanisevic’s 16-3 advantage in aces was more than offset by his 54 unforced errors to Muster’s 14.

The three matches were played beneath the closed retractable roof as rain snapped a three-day heat wave.

Hingis, who has been rollerblading around the the National Tennis Center and along the beach, pursued her love of horseback riding Tuesday at an equestrian center not far from the brush fires raging in Melbourne’s suburbs. With her mother and Australian Olympic gold medal rider Andrew Hoy looking on, Hingis took off for a round of jumps.

“The horse didn’t jump, and I jumped by myself,” Hingis said, laughing at the incident. “I just rolled over. I’m used to falling down. I fell over the head of the horse. I had gymnastics when I was younger, so falling is no problem. It was good after I fell. I just went back on the horse. It wasn’t dangerous at all.”

Most players try to stay out of harm’s way by doing little more than watching TV when they’re not playing or practicing. And few coaches would encourage show jumping between matches. Hingis’ mother and coach, Melanie Molitor, laughed when her daughter took a spill.

“Mentally, it helps if you do something else and not just tennis all the time,” Hingis said.

Hingis, brandishing a polished game far beyond her years, is trying to replace Monica Seles as the youngest Australian Open champion. Seles was 17 when she won the first of her four Australian titles in 1991. No one younger than Hingis has won the singles of a major tournament since Charlotte “Lottie” Dod won Wimbledon at 15 in 1887.

Spirlea hit some impressive winners and forced Hingis to battle back from early service breaks in both sets.

But Hingis played confidently on key points, maneuvering Spirlea into errors.

Hingis lost her service in the second set’s first game, but lost only one more game, breaking Spirlea at love in the final game.

Now it’s on to Fernandez, whom Hingis beat, 6-3, 6-2, at Sydney.