Lawntennisnews

In a grand fashion, Martina Hingis came out victorious over hometown favourite Sania Mirza, 6-1, 6-0, in fifty-eight minutes, at the semifinal round of the Sunfeast Open in Kolkata, India. This is Hingis’ second win against Mirza.

Both players held their respective serves in the first two games for a 1-1 score. Hingis served well and hit varied shots leaving Mirza and the supportive crowd stunned. Hingis then broke Mirza’s serve in the fourth to serve for the set. After long rallies, Hingis handily won the first set, 6-1.

In second set, Hingis was on fire, dictated the play, and moved Mirza from side to side of the court. In the end, Hingis handed Mirza a bagel after closing the set by holding her serve. Mirza had several chances of getting back at the game, but Hingis was just too much for her.

“I don’t think the match was that easy. The points were long. I tried to keep away from her forehand as much as possible but now her backhand is improving. I served well today, and tried to mix it up. You need to stick to the basics and put pressure on your opponent on big points, and that’s what I did,” Hingis said.

“She’s a natural athlete. Like Federer, she makes the game look effortless,” Mirza said of Hingis.
In the final round, Hingis will battle Russian Olga Poutchova who beat Uzbek Iroda Tulyaganova in the other semifinal match.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 25th, 2006 at 7:35 am and is filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.