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Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna battled for the 1997 Wimbledon singles title.

A dominant junior on the world stage, Martina Hingis made a near-seamless transition to the professional ranks. Finishing the 1996 season ranked in the top 10 as a 16-year-old, the Swiss’ 1997 campaign got off to a flawless start, which included her first senior-level Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open.

It seemed as if she would never lose, as she shot up the rankings to soon take over the top spot. However, her undefeated run came to an end in the final of the French Open at the hands of Iva Majoli. Hingis rebounded from that loss to reach the championship match at her next tournament, Wimbledon. There, the top seed won her first six matches quite convincingly without dropping a set.

In the final, she’d face the veteran Jana Novotna. Seeded third, Novotna was tested in three of her first four matches before settling into a groove to reach her third career major title tilt.

With her smooth and stylish all-court game, it was expected that Novotna would have experienced holding the Venus Rosewater Dish at the end of the tournament at some point. Her greatest chance came in the 1993 final, when she held a commanding lead against Steffi Graf before a stunning third-set collapse.

That was her most recent major championship appearance and she started out this final determined to make up for lost time. Attacking at every opportunity, the Czech took the first set 6-2.

In the second set, Hingis began to settle into the match and stayed even with Novotna through the first five games. The world No. 1 then pounced on her first opportunity to break in the sixth game to take a 4-2 lead. Holding on to that advantage, she soon closed out the set 6-3 to level the match.

Novotna got off to an early lead in the decider, going up 2-0. However, some injury issues started to creep in on the Czech’s side and her advantage was quickly erased as Hingis stormed back to go up 4-2. Hingis served for the title at 5-2, but Novotna dug deep to get a break back. However, in her next game, Hingis struck two perfect passing shots on the last two points to seal the victory and capture her second major title of the year.

6

Hingis won her sixth title of the year out of seven tournaments, with her only loss coming in the French Open final.

42

This was Novotna’s 42nd Grand Slam singles tournament and her third career final. By comparison, Hingis was playing in her third major final in 11 events.

1989

The last time a woman won the Australian Open and Wimbledon in the same year was 1989, when Steffi Graf accomplished the feat.