Hingis Wins Pan Pacific

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 5, 1999 / 8:24 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Switzerland's Martina Hingis took just 44 minutes on Sunday to blast South African Amanda Coetzer off the court to win the $1 million Pan Pacific Open women's singles crown 6-2 6-1.

Hingis, guaranteed of regaining her title as World number one during earlier matches in the tournament, ended in style with an almost mistake-free outing in the final.

She grabbed insurmountable leads in both sets as she won the first four games of the first set and the first five games in the second.

Hingis overtook American Lindsay Davenport, who lost in the quarter-finals to Coetzer, as the number one player in the rankings. Hingis secured the number one spot on Saturday with a semi-finals victory over number three seed Czech Jana Novotna.

The Pan Pacific victory comes a week after Hingis won her third straight Australian Open title.

The Swiss teenager said that now she has regained the number one ranking, she wants to keep up her consistent form and hold on to the title.

Hingis held the number one ranking for 80 straight weeks until Davenport overtook her when the American won the U.S. Open in October.

"This time I hope I won't mess around," said Hingis after beating Coetzer.