Tennis-Hingis blames heavy schedule for defeat

World number one Martina Hingis blamed a heavy schedule for her shock 6-4 6-3 loss to Jennifer Capriati in Saturday's Australian Open singles final.

Hingis said she felt mentally and physically tired after a month of hard matches.

"It was one match too many for me," said Hingis, who played singles and doubles at two warm-up events before the first grand slam of the year.

"I was just constantly getting more and more tired in the last few days... I could barely walk.

"I didn't have the power today to go out there. I just made way too many mistakes in the beginning and mentally, I didn't have it anymore."

Despite retaining the number one ranking, Hingis has not won a grand slam singles title in two years but said she was confident her days of winning major titles were not over.

"There are worst disasters in life than what happened to me today," she said.

"I've proved that I can win a grand slam.

"I knew I had to face a great player out there. She just played good tennis."

Hingis said she was considering no longer playing doubles to give herself a better chance of winning singles.

She had won singles and doubles titles at the Australian Open from 1997 to 1999 but has won neither in the past two years and didn't even make the final in doubles this year.

"Maybe I consider not to play (doubles). I just have to relax every second I can and rest. Probably I won't play doubles anymore," she said.

"We'll see. I've said that many times and I still continue to play.

"There's always been different reasons to lose a grand slam before... but I still felt like it was mostly my things that I did something wrong.

"But this time I don't think I did anything wrong... it was just too much."