MARTINA Hingis, taking a page out of the Michael Chang playbook, pulled an underhanded trick at the Australian Open.
The circumstances were much different, with Hingis laughing and fooling around at the time, and the surprise serve didn't really lead to her victory.
But Hingis' joke caught Brenda Schultz-McCarthy off-guard and provided a little levity yesterday in an otherwise brutal 6-1, 6-4 beating of the fastest server in women's tennis.
Hingis, a 15-year-old Swiss prodigy who advanced to a Grand Slam quarter-final for the first time, led 5-1 in the first set when she slugged her fastest serve of the match, a 160 km/h ace - her only ace of the match.
'My record!' Hingis called to Schultz-McCarthy, who replied: 'So maybe I have to stay back.' Schultz-McCarthy retreated to prepare for another sizzler.
'She was standing maybe two, three metres behind the baseline,' Hingis said. 'It was fun, like Michael Chang at Roland Garros, I just put a little more slice in there.' Chang tried the same trick on Ivan Lendl at the 1989 French Open after suffering a cramp in a fourth-round match that stretched to four hours 37 minutes. Chang, 17 at the time, won that point, throwing off the top-ranked Lendl, and went on to win the match and, eventually, the tournament.
Schultz-McCarthy recovered from her surprise, dashed in and managed to return Hingis' underhander, then won the point.