THE NEW FRENCH WONDER...Iva Majoli poses with the French Open women's singles crown before the Eiffel Tower in Paris on Saturday.

The women's singles at the French Open had a teenage winner, but like an amazing number of matches at this year's event, the unexpected teenager won it. Ninth-seeded Iva Majoli outhit, outmanouvered and outsmarted the world No 1 Martina Hingis in straight sets to be the first Croatian to win a Grand Slam title.

Former champion Steffi Graf had picked Majoli, after Graf had lost to Amanda Coetzer to even win the whole tournament just based on the way she plays. Watching Majoli play you can only admire the freedom and courage in her tennis irrespective of who she plays or which round it is. The only question is how long can she maintain the high quality and standard she demands from her tennis.

In the final against Hingis, she knew she had to press hard from the backcourt to put the consistent Swiss girl on the defensive and then attack the net to put away easy volleys.

Hingis, who generally plays from the baseline, is the aggressor, moving her opponents around and forcing the errors. In the final she was forced well behind the baseline by the depth, pace and accuracy of the Majoli groundstokes. After Majoli won the first set and got a service break in the second, it looked like Hingis might be searching for ways to stop the momentum of the Croatian girl. She took a bathroom break and returned to boos from the French crowd. A little later she took an injury time out and had the trainer come out on court to prevent her from getting cramps.

Through all this, Majoli stayed calm practicing her serve to stay warm and mentally staying very focussed on the job at hand.

It is never easy to close out a match like the way Majoli did especially in a Grand Slam final against the No 1 player in the world. But the manner in which she did it was quite astonishing. The new French Open women's champion has the ability and mental toughness to win other Grand Slam titles.

The Russian Yevgeny Kafelinikov did not leave Roland Garros empty handed. He and the Czech Daniel Vacek upset the Woodies -- Woodforde and Woodbridge -- in three close sets with sheer pace of the returns and consistency at the net.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.