NEW YORK, November 21: This time the tight rope broke on Martina Hingis.``The year is over before I expected,'' Hingis said.

Playing a slow, deliberate, power-packed game, Mary Pierce prevailed on her third match point last night to hand Hingis only her fifth loss of 1997, this one in the quarterfinals of the season-ending Chase Championships.Hingis had barely survived in her last five matches - the final four in last week's title run in Villanova, Pennsylvania, and in the first round of this one. Pierce made sure the No 1 seed was on the losing end this time, 6-3, 2-6, 7-5.

When Hingis sailed a backhand wide down the line to end the 2-hour, 5-minute battle, Pierce tossed her racket into the air, then, after shaking her opponent's hand at the net, buried her face in a towel, weeping in joy.

It was the fourth time in six career meetings that the French right-hander has beaten Hingis. But it was the first time since Hingis began the remarkable run that took her to No 1 in the world.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.