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WIMBLEDON, England -- The grass of the All England Club exposed the greatest weakness of Martina Hingis' comeback Friday.
On fast courts, a 20th-century serve can't win for long in a 21st-century game.
Hingis' second serve decelerated to an average of 77 mph by the third set of her loss to 18th seed Ai Sugiyama in Wimbledon's third round, 7-5, 3-6, 6-4. Hingis, seeded 12th, hit just 66 percent of her first serves at an average of 92 mph -- about 30 mph slower than the sport's big hitters like Venus Williams and Maria Sharapova.
Hingis led 3-0 in the final set, but her serve lacked the horsepower to protect a double-break lead.
The former No.?1 player and 1997 Wimbledon winner faulted herself for letting the lead slip away, and followed that with a telling comment.
"Maybe in the past, I would get away with it sometimes," Hingis said. "But now anyone can go out there and bite you."
Hingis' return has been one of the exciting story lines in women's tennis year, but this ranked as the most deflating Grand Slam event result of her comeback after three years in retirement.
Fifth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova has been working on her serve and now bangs it as hard as 110 mph, but it let her down Friday as well. She double-faulted three times against one ace and won just 30 percent of her second serve points in an upset loss to No.?27 seed Na Li of China, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Second-seeded Kim Clijsters and No.?3 Justine Henin-Hardenne experienced no such problems in straight-set victories.
Defending champion Venus Williams escaped an upset herself Thursday when her serve wavered temporarily against Lisa Raymond, but she pulled it together in time to advance to today's match against No.?26 seed Jelena Jankovic.
Hingis reached the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, and then won on clay in Rome before falling in the French Open quarterfinals to Clijsters, 7-6 (5), 6-1.
The advantage of clay is that it slows down everyone's serve and gives Hingis a chance to set up winning ground strokes. That's why Roland Garros offers her most promising chance at a post-retirement Grand Slam title.
On grass, though, there's a high penalty to pay for lacking a consistent hammer.
"Definitely, I'm just as disappointed as some of the other players, like Kuzie," Hingis said of Kuznetsova. "At Wimbledon, you really have to be there and ready."
Sugiyama is no power maven herself with a 97 mph average serve, but she is a dogged base-liner who reached the Wimbledon quarters in 2004. Sugiyama converted on all five of her break points against Hingis, the most damning statistic of the day.
Hingis did hit five aces to Sugiyama's one, but her serve trailed off as the match wore on. Her first serve dropped to from 95 to 91 mph from the second to third sets, and second serve from 83 to 77.
Even Hingis' ground strokes began to tire. Sugiyama won 17-of-23 net approaches because Hingis could not muscle much past her. Hingis passed her just three times, including lobs, one in each set.
Former No.?1 Lindsay Davenport once called Hingis "the smartest player I've ever played against." It is a testament to Hingis' base-line skills that a top-10 finish this year is within sight. But Hingis has not come back for a decent ranking. She wants to win Grand Slam events.
The U.S. Open's hard courts, not so fast as Wimbledon's grass, give Hingis a slightly better chance to contend again.
But it creates an awful lot of pressure to be perfect from the base line when easy points come so rarely from your serve.
Hingis was asked this spring in Key Biscayne if she lifted weights: "I just probably have the 5-pounders, and I warm up with that," she said.
Maybe it's time to rethink the weight program.
Hingis's loss here showed a 5-pound serve is a 2-ton liability in today's game.
Charles Elmore writes for The Palm Beach Post. E-mail: celmore AT pbpost.com
Cox News Service
