Martina Hingis holds the trophy after beating Olga Poutchkova in the final at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Sunday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Not a bland, blinkered automaton, this one. She laughs off court, she even knows how to smile on it, just when she has been passed by a stinging backhand or a scorching forehand.

Having been in the business of winning since she was not even 16, she has seen it all. Success, flashlights, giddying heights of fame and fortune. Injured at a tender age while at the pinnacle, she has seen the flip side of it as well. Broken, wounded, retired hurt.

Her second coming has been all about herself. She is more self-assured now, sure of what she wants. Humbler, wiser, rededicated. She is enjoying her moment under the sun, but Martina Hingis now possesses the power to crack a joke at herself. The Swiss Miss has shown that from the depths of despair, emotional and physical stress, it is possible to return as a stronger, more stable individual.

After beating Sania Mirza in the semi-finals in 58 minutes, she needed a minute less to finish off Olga Poutchkova for her second WTA Tour title this year. But since when has sport been all about statistics?

Clinching her first Grand Slam title (Wimbledon women’s doubles with Helena Sukova at 15 years and 200-odd days), winning five Grand Slam singles, 41 Tour singles titles, 36 doubles titles, youngest Grand Slam singles winner in the 20th century, youngest ever player to attain world No. 1 ranking in July 1997. One can keep on reeling statistics.

The 6-0, 6-4 win will fetch Hingis $28,000 and 120 points. But the point is, her clinching the WTA Sunfeast Open trophy at the Netaji Indoor Stadium on Sunday deserves a standing ovation. If not for anything else — the level of tennis was too poor, really — for the triumph of human spirit.

Spare a thought for the unseeded Olga Poutchkova. The unseeded Russian was too overawed to play tennis.

She has probably never faced such a noisy crowd before (2000-odd in strength, but 6000 in vocal capacity, all rooting for Hingis) and before she could find her bearing, Poutchkova was broken in the second, fourth and sixth games. First set 6-0, over in 18 minutes. Was this a final?

In the second set, the blonde Russian, who en route to reaching the quarter finals in Bali, defeated world No.15 Anna Ivanovic and was facing a top-10 player for the first time in her life, was slightly more competitive.

She has a very powerful backhand and used it to good effect to win three consecutive games, holding serve in the second, breaking Hingis and again holding to go 3-1 up.

Trouble was, the world No. 9 never lost control. Even when Poutchkova was hitting it around, trying an ill-advised drop shot or making it up with another of those whipping backhands from the school of Nick Bollettieri, the Swiss was biding her time — waiting, watching.

The fifth game saw Hingis holding serve, the sixth saw her breaking back, the seventh saw her holding effortlessly again. The top seed broke again in the eighth game. The five-foot, nine-inch Poutchkova was desperately trying to hit winners. Big winners. She succeeded in pushing Hingis to the corner, but even when disbalanced, the Swiss somehow managed to make a return which left the Russian stranded. She was playing on a different level, holding back her strokes just a wee bit to see which way Poutchkova commits.

The world No. 97 showed some spunk in getting a break back in the ninth to stay at 4-5 but it was inevitable that Hingis would break her again in the 10th game. Poutchkova saved one match-point. Her favourite backhand hit the net. Hingis was smiling all along. She now smiled a little more.

Later, Sania Mirza and Liezel Huber romped to their third doubles crown, defeating Ukrainian pair Yulia Beygelzimer and Yuliana Fedak 6-4, 6-0.

The Indo-South African pair broke Fedak’s service in the fourth and Beygelzimer’s in the sixth and 10th games to clinch the first set. In the second, Fedak was broken in the second and sixth, and Beygelzimer in the fourth.