Thursday, August 17, 2006

Hingis through to the quarters at Rogers Cup

Now that's what I'm talking about! the master is back at work.:D I don't know what happened to her on Tuesday but that was not Hingis, this was more like her. I could tell right from the first couple of games she was going to play better.

One indication was she chased down a lot more balls, of course that could have been because the other player didn't have as deep a shot as Hingis's previous opponent but still much more impressive. Most importantly of all her variety was back drop shots, volley's, and some amazing cross courts. This is what was completely missing on Tuesday.

And I think one other thing Martina did better in this match is anticipate her opponents shots. I think that's what truly won her the match. Through her anticipation she made some incredible shots, it was wonderful to watch. This was a fully entertaining match. Much better then most I've seen so far, except for maybe Nicole Pratt yesterday.

Martina seemed much more focused today and really on her game. She only had about 8 or 9 unforced errors and was able to convert on the most important points. Although closing out the match took a little longer, took her 2 times before she was able to serve it out. She was leading 5/1 and her opponent broke her to get back to 5/4 where Martina finally served it out 6/4.

The first set was quite long with both players holding their serve for most of it. Martina broke Hantuchova at 3 all but Hantuchova broke right back. She was leading 4/5 and 40 love, then made 4 unforced errors in a row allowing Hingis to save set point and take the next 2 games winning the first set 7/5.

Again very nice match much cleaner then the one on Tuesday. I'm sure even Martina is a lot more happy with this performance. So now Hingis goes on to face Svetlana Kuznetsova tomorrow night.

That's gonna be one hell of a match. I think Hingis will have to bring her game up another notch to win it, but tonight was a step in the right direction. All the best to her tomorrow, I have a feeling it'll be a toughie.

Oh, and a little update on Kim apparently the injury she had is not the same she had surgery on. She tore a different ligament, there will be further tests run and she'll give the final word on whether or not she'll play at the U.S. Open in about a weeks time.

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