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Hingis humiliated by qualifier Dokic

Martina Hingis suffered a humiliating defeat at Wimbledon today. The world No 1 was routed by 16-year-old qualifier Jelena Dokic 6-2, 6-0 in the first round of the women's singles, in one of the biggest upsets in the history of the Championships.

The top seed was completely outplayed by the young Australian, who finished off Tuesday's centre court match with an awesome performance in just 54 minutes.

Dokic, World junior champion last year, broke Hingis, the 1997 Wimbledon champion, twice in the first set, and then was in a class of her own for the rest of the match. She made the Swiss star look like a novice, running her around the court and smashing winners past her at will.

Hingis, 18, who lost to Steffi Graf in the final of the French Open, where she was heavily criticised for her petulant behaviour, could do little to save face.

"It's amazing, just amazing," Dokic said afterwards, as 1987 men's champion Pat Cash embraced her.

Hingis had last lost in the first round of a Grand Slam at Wimbledon in 1995.

The last time a Wimbledon top seed was beaten in the opening round was when Steffi Graf lost to Lori McNeil in 1994.

The first round may have seen another upset, but Spaniard Arantxa Sanchez -Vicario did well to recover after a first set loss and get the better of debutante Hungarian, Anna Maria Foldenyi, winning 4-6, 6-3, 6-3.

The Barcelona baseline specialist, who has twice been toppled by Steffi Graf in the Wimbledon final, was sadly out of sorts in a bludgeoning battle against a young opponent who refused to be overawed on her first Wimbledon appearance.

The seventh seed had to come back from a set and 2-0 down to avoid what would have been the first upset of the tournament. She started rather well and raced to a 4-2 lead in the first set. But just when it looked like an easy victory on court two, known as the graveyard of champions because the title chances of so many champions have been buried there, the errors crept in, before consistency could desert her. In the end, she was forced to draw on all her experience to come through this opening test.

Both players lost their serve twice in the first four games of the final set. But the feisty Spaniard's experience finally told as she broke Foldenyi's serve for the final time in the 10th game.

Sanchez was joined in the second round by 11th seed Barbara Schett, who beat Spain's Gala Leon Garcia 7-5, 6-2. The Austrian has never made it past the second round before here.

Another Wimbledon first timer, Meghann Shaughnessy of the US beat Spain's Virginia Ruano Pascual 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 to reach the second round, where she will play Elena Wagner of Germany, who beat Britain's Abigail Tordoff 6-0, 6-2.

In the men's singles there were easy first round victories for Karim Alami, the graceful Moroccan, who beat Laurence Tieleman of Italy 6-4, 6-2, 6-4, and third seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who won his rain-interrupted match with Magnus Larsson of Sweden 6-7(7-4), 7-5, 7-6(8-6), 4-6, 7-5.

It took the world's top-ranked player until nine days ago just five minutes to finish off the match. Kafelnikov first held serve to love and then broke Larsson on his second match-point when the Swede put a forehand out.

Fading light had stopped the match at 5-5 in the fifth set after three hours and 18 minutes of play on Monday.

Kafelnikov had looked in danger of becoming the first seed to go out of the championships when he was trailing Larsson, ranked 53rd in the world, 7-6, 5-7, 6-7, 6-4, 2-4. But the Australian Open champion, who has lost twice to Larsson in three previous meetings on grass, fought back, breaking the Swede as he served for the match at 5-4.

Australian Lleyton Hewitt, seen by many as a good outside bet for the men's title, also cruised past Marcelo Filippini of Uruguay 6-2, 6-2, 6-1 in his first Wimbledon appearance.

Hewitt, 18, had lost to Pete Sampras in the semi-finals of the Queen's grass court tournament two weeks ago and won the claycourt tournament at Delray Neach in May.

Agencies