Hingis through to the 3rd round of U.S. Open

hingis.org


Well, since I am still waiting to see the 1st round match I thought I would comment on the 2nd. Hingis was up against Pauline Parmentie of France. And miracle of miracles USA Network actually showed almost the entire match!.

The match started off with her opponent winning the opening game and Hingis holding to level at 1/all. Then winning the next 2 games for a 3/1 lead. Her competitor managed to get only one game back before Hingis closed the set at 6/2.

The second set started much like the first with Hingis leveling things at 1/all after losing the opening game. Hingis proceeded to win the next game on her 3rd break chance for 2/1. Her opponent broke right back for 2/all. Hingis broke again for 3/2 but so did her opponent leveling the match at 3/all.

Hingis broke back for 4/3, but her opponent broke her at love for 4 games all. Towards the end of this set her opponent picked up her game a lot more perhaps surprising Hingis a little, making it tougher for her to close out the match. Hingis had to battle for 5/all after losing the game at love to win the set at 7/5.

Overall it was good match, a nice test towards the end. Though from what I read she seemed to play a little better in her first match. At this point it's still hard to judge exactly how she's playing, there is definitely an improvement compared to last year's U.S. Open.

She'll of course have to play better if she wants to make it past Kuznetsova in the 4th round, but I'm taking it one match at a time. So again the verdict is she played well, thus avoiding last year's embarrassing loss to Verginie Rozzano in the second round.

Right now I'm just glad she's finally playing. It's never the same without her in any tournament. So I'm wishing her all the luck and hoping her body holds up. Especially since she's pulling double duty playing singles and doubles with Daniela Hantuchova.

In the first set the commentators thought she may have hurt herself, or felt a twinge in her back, but it didn't seem to bother her the rest of the match so I'm hoping it was nothing.

She was also swinging her racket a lot which was a little unusual for her, but I honestly think it was just her trying to stay nice and loose. Anyway, congrats to Martina and here's hoping she can keep the momentum going.