Seventh seed Martina Hingis had to fight hard to beat Italian Mara Santangelo in their second-round match, 7-5, 7-6(5), at the Rogers Cup in Montreal, Canada. Hingis’ first-time triumph over Santangelo lasted for one hour and forty-six minutes.

As this is the first time Hingis played against Santangelo, she had no idea what to expect from the big-serving Italian. In the first round, Hingis had to put up with her Italian opponent’s big serves and some wide shots. With two aces to Santangelo’s one ace, no double-faults to Santangelo’s four, Hingis breathed a sigh of relief, taking the first set, 7-5.

Hingis started the second set poorly, trailing Santangelo at 4-1. Santangelo then took a medical timeout, while Hingis talked to her mother on court. When the play resumed, Santangelo found herself serving for the second set at 5-4. Not wanting to go for a third set, Hingis turned the table around with solid ground strokes and won two games more before winning the tiebreaker to advance into the next round, 7-6(5).

Hingis, the first to advance into the third round, will be playing Slovak Daniela Hantuchova whom she is tied with in career head-to-head wins at 1-1.

World number 5 Elena Dementieva claimed the 6th title of her career and second this year by beating Serbian Jelena Jankovic in three tight sets 6-3; 4-6; 6-4.

Dementieva came out on fire racing to a 3-0 lead in the first set allowing Jankovic only 2 points along the way. But the Serbian finally started making her game and eventually pulled back to 4-3. But from there on Dementieva turned the heat again and closed out the set 6-3.

In the second set it was Jankovic who came out firing. After battling a first service game that lasted for several deuces she finally broke Dementieva and followed that by holding. Players then went with serve until 3-1, but Dementieva looked poised to finish the match quickly. She reeled off thenext three games and went up 4-3. But Jankovic had other ideas and cheered by the crowd she closed out the set to her favour 6-4.

After Dementieva took a toilet break between sets the Russian looked as though she was starting a match right from the beginning, Looking fresher and more powerful. She powered her way through the next five games as Jankovic lost momentum. At this point the Russian looked minutes away from her 6th title. But there was still more chapters to come in this drama. Jankovic found some last drops of fuel and clawed her way into the match by claming the next four games, saving two championship points along the way at 5-3. But on the 10th game of the set Dementieva went up 30-0 on the Serbian’s serve and hadn’t Jankovic stopped play to ask for an electronic confirmation, which was correct, Elena could have had triple match point. But Jankovic was right so the game was back at 15-30. However, another backhand mistake by Jankovic set up double match point and, not looking back, Dementieva smacked one of her trademark crosscourt forehands to end the day.

Screaming in joy Dementieva claimed her second title of the year and 6th overall. And after a hard day at work nothing better to chill out than a swim at the beach and that’s what the new LA Champion did. “To get another title this year menas a lot. I hope to continue to play well and be ready for the US Open. But I deserve a couple of days off. I am going to the beach right now to swim.”

The match featured intense rallies from the baseline with both players giving all they had in their arsenals from scorching winners to magnificent dropshots and lobs.

With the win Dementieva moved one place in the rankings, making her way into the top five again (at number 5), a status she last held in July 2005. Jankovic moved seven places from 28 to 21. Also to make notice of, Jankovic though of giving up tennis earlier this year after going 1-10 in her first ten tournaments but on her last ten she goes 24-10, a huge turnaround.

Citing tiredness, Maria Sharapova announced her withdrawal from Rogers Cup tournament set to begin on August 14, 2006. She was seeded second behind defending champion Kim Clijsters.

Sharapova’s announcement came after compatriot Elena Dementieva snapped her eight-match winning streak at the semi-finals of the JP Morgan Chase Open. Having played nine matches in thirteen days must have drained her out of energy, as her body could not cope with the rigorous level of play required to win matches. This was evident in her two-set loss to Dementieva, as she incurred 46 unforced errors.

”Unfortunately, my body is very fatigued because of the extensive number of matches that I have played over a short period of time, and I don’t feel that I can perform at the level required” she said.

”I look forward to playing the Rogers Cup next year and to recuperating my body as fast as possible.”

Serena Williams failed to advance to her first final appearance in a tournament after months of absence due to injury, falling to Jelena Jankovic during their semi-final match at the JP Morgan Chase in one hour and twenty minutes, 4-6, 3-6. Jankovic now leads Williams in their career-head-to-head wins, at 2-1.

Williams started the first game well, racing to 30-0 lead and was on her way to breaking Jankovic’s serve. However, alas, the Serbian fought back ferociously, holding off Williams’ early charge to claim the first game of the first set with an ace. It seemed that Jankovic was well prepared to deal with Williams’ big serve, as she broke Williams’ serve twice in the first set en route to 6-4 first set win just before Williams got reprimanded for racquet abuse.

In the second set, Williams, though hitting the ball hard, could not put pressure on Jankovic. Refusing to be intimidated, the young Serbian controlled the points of the game from the baseline. In the process, Williams could only win three games, despite not having double-faulted. Jankovic tried to win the second set by breaking Williams in the eighth game but failed, as Williams won’t give the match without a fight. Jankovic then held her serve in the ninth game to set-up a meeting with Russian Elena Dementieva in the final round.

Despite the loss, Williams’ was satisfied with her performance in her second tournament.

“I still believe I’m going in the right direction. It’s only my second
tournament for some time, and I’m definitely doing better than I was my first week back.”

Elena Dementieva ousted Maria Sharapova in the JP Morgan Chase Open from Los Angeles to claim her second win over the former Wimbledon champion in seven meetings.

The last time Elena defeated Sharapova was almost three years ago in the 2003 Shangai Open en route to the title. Three years after and five consecutive and painful losses Dementieva finally scored again posting a 7-5; 6-2 win over her younger compatriot.

Dementieva showed pinpoint accuracy but what proved to be the key for this match was the Muscovite’s serve. As she has acknowledged previously her match would do all the difference - and it did. Grabbing 65% of the points when placing her first serve Dementieva was able to keep up with Sharapova and even jump to a 5-1 lead in the first set. After holding set points early on the erratic but forever fighter Sharapova toughed out four straight games and evened things at five. But Dementieva was far from letting down and quicly held serve and claimed a 40-0 lead on Sharapova’s serve. She eventually pocketed the set 7-5.

As the second set got underway, Sharapova became increasingly erratic as her serve fell apart and her net approaches were frustrated by Dementieva’s passing-shots or by Sharapova’s own unforced errors. Dementieva continued to play consistent tennis from the baseline toughing out fierce rallies. On her seventh match point the elder Russian finally capitalized sending her younger opponent packing back home and clinching a final berth, a third this season.

“I feel really great” Dementieva said after the match. ” I have lost to her twice this year and I was really looking forward to this match because she is such a tough player”.

“This win really means a lot to me. When you play against Maria, she is a great fighter and never gives up. That makes it difficult to play against her”.

Next up for the talentous Russian will be either in-comeback-process Serena Williams or Serbian Jelena Jankovic. Serena and Jelena will square off for the third time with the series tied at one. Dementieva has a negative record versus Serena, having never claimed a match in official tournaments against Williams. She’s also tied with Jankovic at one.