Qatar Telecom German Open Preview
7th May 2006
Martina Hingis’ quest for her first tournament title since her January comeback continues with this year’s edition of the Qatar Telecom German Open in Berlin, Germany. Being a Tier 1 tournament, it offers its winner a prize money of $196,900, plus 300 ranking points while the runner-up gets $100,000 and 210 ranking points.
Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, a champion here back in 2001 and 2004 is seeded first while Russian Nadia Petrova is seeded second. Defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne, who also was the 2002 and 2003 champion is seeded third. Meanwhile, Swiss top female player, Patty Schnyder is seeded fourth. And Russian Elena Dementieva who is fifth seeded, completes the top five seeds. Another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, is seeded sixth, while German Anna-Lena Groenefeld is seventh seed. Slovak Daniela Hantuchova is seeded eighth. And Russians Elena Likhovtseva and Dinara Safina are seeded ninth and tenth respectively.
Martina Hingis’ draw offers a chance to avenge previous losses earlier this year to Flavia Pennetta in the first round. And possibly, Elena Dementieva in the third round, Amelie Mauresmo, in the quarterfinals and Justine Henin-Hardenne in the semifinal round.
Hingis has been drawn to play Italian Flavia Pennetta in the first round. This will be the second time she will be playing Penneta, the last time was at the semifinal round at a Gold Coast tournament in Australia earlier this year. The second round, should Hingis prevail in the first round, is deemed to be a walk-in-a-park as she will have to play either German Julia Schruff or Finn Emma Laine, who both are lower-ranked players.
Elena Dementieva will most likely be Hingis’ third round opponent. It will be Hingis’ and Dementieva’s second meeting this year, the first one, being at Pan Pacific Final in Japan where Hingis lost to Dementieva. Surely Hingis will be raring to exact her revenge on Dementieva and improve her career head-to-head wins over her. Hingis leads their career head-to-head wins at 3-2.
A quarterfinal win over Amelie Mauresmo will definitely boost Hingis’ confidence in going to the semifinal round where Justine Henin-Hardenne possibly awaits. It will be recalled that Hingis was beaten by Mauresmo in the semifinals of the Qatar Open earlier in Doha. Henin-Hardenne on the other hand, notched her first ever win against Hingis earlier in the second round of the Sydney International, in Australia earlier.
Should the seedings hold true in the other half of the draw, Hingis might be facing second seeded Nadia Petrova in the final. It would be interesting to note that Petrova and Hingis are tied at 1-1 in their career head-to-heads. Their last meeting was in 2002 in Moscow, and during that time, Petrova won.
Technorati Tags: amelie mauresmo, berlin germany, career head, champion, daniela hantuchova, dinara safina, elena dementieva, elena likhovtseva, flavia pennetta, justine henin hardenne, martina hingis, nadia petrova, patty schnyder, Qatar Telecom German Open, qatar telecom, svetlana kuznetsova