Sunday, February 14, 2016
Saturday, February 13, 2016
Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza notch 38th straight match win in St. Petersburg
Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza and her Swiss partner Martina Hingis notched up their 38th straight win to reach the semifinals of the women's doubles event of the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy on Saturday.
The top-seeded pair continued their rampaging form in their 6-4, 6-1 demolition of the unseeded Russian duo of Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals.
Sania and Hingis will next face the third-seeded pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja later in the day to secure a spot in the final.
Earlier this year, the Indo-Swiss duo won their third consecutive women's doubles Grand Slam title by lifting the Australian Open trophy.
Since an upset loss in the French Open quarterfinals, the Indo-Swiss duo has been unstoppable, winning 42 of the next 45 matches to take home titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, the WTA Finals in Singapore, Brisbane and Sydney.
The top-seeded pair continued their rampaging form in their 6-4, 6-1 demolition of the unseeded Russian duo of Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina in the quarterfinals.
Sania and Hingis will next face the third-seeded pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja later in the day to secure a spot in the final.
Earlier this year, the Indo-Swiss duo won their third consecutive women's doubles Grand Slam title by lifting the Australian Open trophy.
Since an upset loss in the French Open quarterfinals, the Indo-Swiss duo has been unstoppable, winning 42 of the next 45 matches to take home titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Beijing, the WTA Finals in Singapore, Brisbane and Sydney.
Friday, February 12, 2016
Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza extend match winning streak to #37 in St. Petersburg
Top-ranked doubles team and WTA Co-No.1s Martina Hingis and Sania Mirza brought their 36-match winning streak to the St. Petersburg Ladies Tophy, adding to their total with a first round win over Jelena Ostapenko and Evgeniya Rodina, 7-5, 7-5.
"We didn't know how to play them that well in the beginning," Hingis said in their post-match press conference. "We lost an opportunity at 3-2, 40-0 to go up and close out the match, and they came back to play a couple of really good games - especially Ostapenko, who hit some really great shots.
"I think it was great experience for them to play a match like that, and also for us to get into the tournament. I'm definitely happy we didn't have to play a deciding set. It's always nice to close out in straight sets; it makes us that much stronger."
Hingis and Mirza haven't lost a match since last August at the Western & Southern Open, their now-37-match winning streak having taken them to titles at the US Open, BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and the Australian Open - with only the French Open standing between them and a possible "Santina Slam."
"The streak that we're on is amazing," Mirza said. "To be honest, we knew we could play good, but not this good. We're surprising ourselves as well, and we just want to keep going.
Asked about the media's fascination with their streak, the longest since Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova won 44 straight matches in 1990, the team known as "SanTina" didn't mince words.
"We're counting, also."
"Yes, we are," Hingis added.
For Hingis, the partnership with Mirza marks her second to truly capture the imagination of the tennis world, the first being her late-90s domination with Russia's own Anna Kournikova - still a popular topic in the St. Petersburg press room.
"She was a great player, a team player, and we had great times for those two years," Hingis said, speaking about their two Australian Open victories in 1999 and 2002.
"She kind of was the one who started this Russian Armada - or Russian generation - along with Elena Likhovtseva. She was definitely the one who you could aim for and be like, go around the world and live the 'Russian-American dream.' I loved playing with her.
"We stay in touch, especially during the Miami event; we always try to see each other. I follow what she's doing; she follows me."
Mirza too fondly remembers the "Spice Girls" of the women's doubles circuit.
"At that time I think TV was not as evolved as it is today, combined with the computer, so it was not so easy to get to see matches all the time. But everybody knew Martina Hingis, everybody knew Anna Kournikova, and everybody knew that this partnership was winning a lot, and probably was one of the best doubles teams to play.
"She's not that much older than me," she added with a laugh. "Only five years; it's just that she's been around for such a long time!"
Another partnership Hingis looks forward to exploring involves fellow Swiss Roger Federer, who agreed to play mixed doubles with her at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"I waited ten months, and maybe after winning a lot with Sania, and becoming No.1 again and winning three mixed titles, I was hoping that would be persuasion enough to partner up."
SanTina next face an all-Russian pair for a spot in the quarterfinals and Win No.38: rising Russian star Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina, Mirza's former doubles partner.
"We played together for a long time; she's a very good friend of mine, and we've known each other since we were 13 years old.
"I have a feeling that the crowd will be behind them because she's quite popular here, but hopefully there will be some people supporting us."
Asked if they foresaw their partnership transcending to other endeavors, Hingis said they planned to let their racquets do the talking.
"We'll stick to tennis; that's what we do best."
"We didn't know how to play them that well in the beginning," Hingis said in their post-match press conference. "We lost an opportunity at 3-2, 40-0 to go up and close out the match, and they came back to play a couple of really good games - especially Ostapenko, who hit some really great shots.
"I think it was great experience for them to play a match like that, and also for us to get into the tournament. I'm definitely happy we didn't have to play a deciding set. It's always nice to close out in straight sets; it makes us that much stronger."
Hingis and Mirza haven't lost a match since last August at the Western & Southern Open, their now-37-match winning streak having taken them to titles at the US Open, BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global, and the Australian Open - with only the French Open standing between them and a possible "Santina Slam."
"The streak that we're on is amazing," Mirza said. "To be honest, we knew we could play good, but not this good. We're surprising ourselves as well, and we just want to keep going.
Asked about the media's fascination with their streak, the longest since Jana Novotna and Helena Sukova won 44 straight matches in 1990, the team known as "SanTina" didn't mince words.
"We're counting, also."
"Yes, we are," Hingis added.
For Hingis, the partnership with Mirza marks her second to truly capture the imagination of the tennis world, the first being her late-90s domination with Russia's own Anna Kournikova - still a popular topic in the St. Petersburg press room.
"She was a great player, a team player, and we had great times for those two years," Hingis said, speaking about their two Australian Open victories in 1999 and 2002.
"She kind of was the one who started this Russian Armada - or Russian generation - along with Elena Likhovtseva. She was definitely the one who you could aim for and be like, go around the world and live the 'Russian-American dream.' I loved playing with her.
"We stay in touch, especially during the Miami event; we always try to see each other. I follow what she's doing; she follows me."
Mirza too fondly remembers the "Spice Girls" of the women's doubles circuit.
"At that time I think TV was not as evolved as it is today, combined with the computer, so it was not so easy to get to see matches all the time. But everybody knew Martina Hingis, everybody knew Anna Kournikova, and everybody knew that this partnership was winning a lot, and probably was one of the best doubles teams to play.
"She's not that much older than me," she added with a laugh. "Only five years; it's just that she's been around for such a long time!"
Another partnership Hingis looks forward to exploring involves fellow Swiss Roger Federer, who agreed to play mixed doubles with her at the upcoming Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
"I waited ten months, and maybe after winning a lot with Sania, and becoming No.1 again and winning three mixed titles, I was hoping that would be persuasion enough to partner up."
SanTina next face an all-Russian pair for a spot in the quarterfinals and Win No.38: rising Russian star Daria Kasatkina and Elena Vesnina, Mirza's former doubles partner.
"We played together for a long time; she's a very good friend of mine, and we've known each other since we were 13 years old.
"I have a feeling that the crowd will be behind them because she's quite popular here, but hopefully there will be some people supporting us."
Asked if they foresaw their partnership transcending to other endeavors, Hingis said they planned to let their racquets do the talking.
"We'll stick to tennis; that's what we do best."
Thursday, February 11, 2016
Martina Hingis & Sania Mirza visit Russian Museum in St. Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city known for its arts and culture, so it's no surprise that doubles co-No.1s Sania Mirza and Martina Hingis made a stop to take it all in at the State Russian Museum.
Wednesday, February 10, 2016
Martina Hingis Renaissance Woman
“She did all the great volleys and all the doubles stuff,” 18-year-old Belinda Bencic said after helping Switzerland clinch its first-round Fed Cup tie against Germany on Sunday.
The “she” in that sentence was Martina Hingis, Bencic’s teammate, idol, and sometime-coach. Fourteen years after her first retirement from tennis, Hingis is still teaching the kids what this “doubles stuff” is all about.
Before the tie’s fifth and deciding match, momentum had swung hard in Germany’s favor. Annika Beck had knotted the score at 2-2 by beating the higher-ranked Timea Bacsinszky, and the crowd in Leipzig was on its feet and (a little awkwardly) dancing in the aisles. Who could Switzerland call on to put out the fire? The team’s secret weapon, of course: A 35-year-old whose best year—1997, when she won three Grand Slam singles titles—happened to be the same one in which her partner, Bencic, was born.
“I was cheering them on for the first four matches,” Hingis said of her younger teammates, “and then I had to go out there.”
Hingis and Bencic went out there, and a few minutes later the German fans were back in their seats; it was pretty clear that there wouldn’t be any more dancing on this day. The Swiss team cruised past Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3, 6-2. As Bencic said, it was Hingis who led the way with her returns, net coverage, consistency, creativity, and incomparable court sense. All of the things, in other words, that have already put Hingis in the sport’s Hall of Fame.
“I was just happy I could play with her,” Bencic said. “I’m not a doubles specialist.”
Once upon a time, Hingis wasn’t a doubles specialist, either. Three tennis lifetimes ago, all the way back in the 20th century, Hingis spent 203 weeks at the top of the WTA’s singles rankings, won five major singles titles, and fell one match short of completing a calendar-year Grand Slam. Like Novak Djokovic last year, her only loss at a major in 1997 came in the French Open final, to Iva Majoli. The following year, she did complete a calendar-year Grand Slam, in doubles.
But that was only the start for Hingis. While she looked sure to be the next great women’s player, she ended up instead having a career that was as notable for its plunging lows as it was for its stratospheric highs. As a 16-year-old, she became the youngest player to win a major, at the 1997 Australian Open. Two years later, she became perhaps the youngest player to be booed off center court at the French Open, after throwing a fit in her final-round loss to Steffi Graf. And as a 22-year-old, after ceding the spotlight to Serena and Venus Williams, Hingis became one of the youngest champions to retire.
In 2006, she came back and quickly returned to the Top 10. By the end of 2007, though, she had retired again, after being suspended for two years after testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine. In 2013, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.
Now Hingis is back again, and working on another Slam. She and her partner, Sania Mirza,have won the last three women’s doubles majors, and are currently on a 36-match win streak. Hingis first took over the top spot in the WTA’s doubles rankings in 1998; now she’s done it again in 2016. Has there ever been a longer hiatus between turns at No. 1?
"Who would’ve thought I would have another opportunity to become No. 1 again?" Hingis said in January. "Of course I had my hopes and dreams. Now it’s a reality.”
Hingis may claim that she only had “hopes and dreams” of a third career renaissance, but she doesn’t sound, or act, too surprised about it to me. At 35, she still plays and speaks with the swagger of someone who has always felt she belonged at the top.
“Obviously the first three months, the first three tournaments, we were already, like, amazing,” Hingis says of the early stages of her partnership with Mirza, which began last year.
"It’s something that’s a priority,” Hingis says. “When I was playing singles, singles was [the] priority. I became No. 1 there. Also simultaneously I was No. 1 in both. Now I put 100 percent or 120 percent into this, and I think that’s what makes us this great doubles [team].”
Of course, there’s more to the team's success than that. While Hingis praises Mirza mainly for “setting me up,” it’s the mix of the Indian woman’s power with the Swiss woman’s finesse that makes them such a formidable and complementary duo. Mirza pounds her forehand as hard as many of the WTA’s singles stars, while Hingis, even at 35, places the ball and covers the net like few players today. The fact that each is devoted solely to doubles gives them an advantage, in terms of focus and practice time, over those who also play singles.
“Even playing crosscourt forehands when we practice, we just constantly make each other better,” says Hingis, who says she has improved her serve in her time with Mirza.
Whether she’s playing with Mirza or Bencic, though, it’s Hingis who puts on a clinic in classic doubles tactics and technique. She’s the one who drapes herself over the net, follows the ball instinctively, and cuts it off whenever possible. She’s the one who can create surprising angles on her return and take over the net from a younger server who won’t leave the baseline. She’s the one who doesn’t make the wild, crucial error at the wrong time. And she’s one of the few players who can hit crisp volley winners with two hands on the racquet.
It’s also true that Hingis is the one with the 70-m.p.h. second serve; as she says at virtually every press conference, she has no plans to go back to singles, and there’s a good reason for that. Hingis will forever be a transitional figure in women’s tennis: The last finesse champion before the power-game onslaught; the last champion of the 20th century.
Sixteen years into the 21st century, Hingis is like a former U.S. president who has become a senator later in life. She’s no longer the very best, but she’s still putting her unique skills to good use. She’s the one who still makes all of that “doubles stuff” worth watching.
The “she” in that sentence was Martina Hingis, Bencic’s teammate, idol, and sometime-coach. Fourteen years after her first retirement from tennis, Hingis is still teaching the kids what this “doubles stuff” is all about.
Before the tie’s fifth and deciding match, momentum had swung hard in Germany’s favor. Annika Beck had knotted the score at 2-2 by beating the higher-ranked Timea Bacsinszky, and the crowd in Leipzig was on its feet and (a little awkwardly) dancing in the aisles. Who could Switzerland call on to put out the fire? The team’s secret weapon, of course: A 35-year-old whose best year—1997, when she won three Grand Slam singles titles—happened to be the same one in which her partner, Bencic, was born.
“I was cheering them on for the first four matches,” Hingis said of her younger teammates, “and then I had to go out there.”
Hingis and Bencic went out there, and a few minutes later the German fans were back in their seats; it was pretty clear that there wouldn’t be any more dancing on this day. The Swiss team cruised past Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld, 6-3, 6-2. As Bencic said, it was Hingis who led the way with her returns, net coverage, consistency, creativity, and incomparable court sense. All of the things, in other words, that have already put Hingis in the sport’s Hall of Fame.
“I was just happy I could play with her,” Bencic said. “I’m not a doubles specialist.”
Once upon a time, Hingis wasn’t a doubles specialist, either. Three tennis lifetimes ago, all the way back in the 20th century, Hingis spent 203 weeks at the top of the WTA’s singles rankings, won five major singles titles, and fell one match short of completing a calendar-year Grand Slam. Like Novak Djokovic last year, her only loss at a major in 1997 came in the French Open final, to Iva Majoli. The following year, she did complete a calendar-year Grand Slam, in doubles.
But that was only the start for Hingis. While she looked sure to be the next great women’s player, she ended up instead having a career that was as notable for its plunging lows as it was for its stratospheric highs. As a 16-year-old, she became the youngest player to win a major, at the 1997 Australian Open. Two years later, she became perhaps the youngest player to be booed off center court at the French Open, after throwing a fit in her final-round loss to Steffi Graf. And as a 22-year-old, after ceding the spotlight to Serena and Venus Williams, Hingis became one of the youngest champions to retire.
In 2006, she came back and quickly returned to the Top 10. By the end of 2007, though, she had retired again, after being suspended for two years after testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine. In 2013, she was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, R.I.
Now Hingis is back again, and working on another Slam. She and her partner, Sania Mirza,have won the last three women’s doubles majors, and are currently on a 36-match win streak. Hingis first took over the top spot in the WTA’s doubles rankings in 1998; now she’s done it again in 2016. Has there ever been a longer hiatus between turns at No. 1?
"Who would’ve thought I would have another opportunity to become No. 1 again?" Hingis said in January. "Of course I had my hopes and dreams. Now it’s a reality.”
Hingis may claim that she only had “hopes and dreams” of a third career renaissance, but she doesn’t sound, or act, too surprised about it to me. At 35, she still plays and speaks with the swagger of someone who has always felt she belonged at the top.
“Obviously the first three months, the first three tournaments, we were already, like, amazing,” Hingis says of the early stages of her partnership with Mirza, which began last year.
"It’s something that’s a priority,” Hingis says. “When I was playing singles, singles was [the] priority. I became No. 1 there. Also simultaneously I was No. 1 in both. Now I put 100 percent or 120 percent into this, and I think that’s what makes us this great doubles [team].”
Of course, there’s more to the team's success than that. While Hingis praises Mirza mainly for “setting me up,” it’s the mix of the Indian woman’s power with the Swiss woman’s finesse that makes them such a formidable and complementary duo. Mirza pounds her forehand as hard as many of the WTA’s singles stars, while Hingis, even at 35, places the ball and covers the net like few players today. The fact that each is devoted solely to doubles gives them an advantage, in terms of focus and practice time, over those who also play singles.
“Even playing crosscourt forehands when we practice, we just constantly make each other better,” says Hingis, who says she has improved her serve in her time with Mirza.
Whether she’s playing with Mirza or Bencic, though, it’s Hingis who puts on a clinic in classic doubles tactics and technique. She’s the one who drapes herself over the net, follows the ball instinctively, and cuts it off whenever possible. She’s the one who can create surprising angles on her return and take over the net from a younger server who won’t leave the baseline. She’s the one who doesn’t make the wild, crucial error at the wrong time. And she’s one of the few players who can hit crisp volley winners with two hands on the racquet.
It’s also true that Hingis is the one with the 70-m.p.h. second serve; as she says at virtually every press conference, she has no plans to go back to singles, and there’s a good reason for that. Hingis will forever be a transitional figure in women’s tennis: The last finesse champion before the power-game onslaught; the last champion of the 20th century.
Sixteen years into the 21st century, Hingis is like a former U.S. president who has become a senator later in life. She’s no longer the very best, but she’s still putting her unique skills to good use. She’s the one who still makes all of that “doubles stuff” worth watching.
Tuesday, February 09, 2016
Martina Hingis praises Angelique Kerber
Ahead of their Fed Cup clash, Martina Hingis heaped praise on Angelique Kerber for her sensational win at the Australian Open last month.
The German rallied to upset the indomitable Serena Williams in the final of the Melbourne event. Now, Kerber lines up for Germany opposite Hingis and the Swiss team in this weekend's Fed Cup action.
"It's a nice setting...once it's going to be packed, it's going to be a great atmosphere," said the 34-year-old of the Leipziger Messe court in Germany.
"It's going to be really good tie because Angelique is obviously in great form, winning the Australian Open and No. 2 in the world. She's the leader of the team.
"All the German hopes are with her on the team as a champion who also beat Serena Williams, the No. 1 player. It's a great moment to have it here."
Hingis is coming off a big win in Melbourne herself, picking up her third consecutive grand slam women's doubles title with Sania Mirza.
Switzerland returns to the World Group for the first time since 2004, largely thanks to the efforts of world number 11 Belinda Bencic and 15th ranked Timea Bacsinszky, who are key to Swiss hopes this weekend.
"It's really nice to go back up," continued Hingis, who will sit out the opening round.
"The ladies, Timea and Belinda, have done most of the job to get up here.
"The last tie was really nerve-racking. It came down to the last few points. It was really nice to be part of the team again there and now joining the best of the best is pretty cool."
foxsportsasia.com
The German rallied to upset the indomitable Serena Williams in the final of the Melbourne event. Now, Kerber lines up for Germany opposite Hingis and the Swiss team in this weekend's Fed Cup action.
"It's a nice setting...once it's going to be packed, it's going to be a great atmosphere," said the 34-year-old of the Leipziger Messe court in Germany.
"It's going to be really good tie because Angelique is obviously in great form, winning the Australian Open and No. 2 in the world. She's the leader of the team.
"All the German hopes are with her on the team as a champion who also beat Serena Williams, the No. 1 player. It's a great moment to have it here."
Hingis is coming off a big win in Melbourne herself, picking up her third consecutive grand slam women's doubles title with Sania Mirza.
Switzerland returns to the World Group for the first time since 2004, largely thanks to the efforts of world number 11 Belinda Bencic and 15th ranked Timea Bacsinszky, who are key to Swiss hopes this weekend.
"It's really nice to go back up," continued Hingis, who will sit out the opening round.
"The ladies, Timea and Belinda, have done most of the job to get up here.
"The last tie was really nerve-racking. It came down to the last few points. It was really nice to be part of the team again there and now joining the best of the best is pretty cool."
foxsportsasia.com
Monday, February 08, 2016
Martina Hingis & Belinda Bencic help Switzerland reach Fed Cup semis
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LEIPZIG, Germany (AP) Belinda Bencic and Australian Open doubles champion Martina Hingis sent Switzerland to the Fed Cup semifinals with a 3-2 win over Germany on Sunday.
The 18-year-old Bencic and Hingis, who won with Sania Mirza in Melbourne, converted four of their five break points to defeat Andrea Petkovic and Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-3, 6-2 in the deciding doubles match.
Bencic paid tribute to her 35-year-old doubles partner.
''She did all the great volleys and all the doubles stuff. I was just happy I could play with her. I'm not a doubles specialist,'' said the Swiss No. 1, who upset Australian Open singles champion Angelique Kerber 7-6 (4), 6-3 to give Switzerland a 2-1 lead earlier Sunday.
Bencic, ranked 11th, came from 1-4 down to win the first set tiebreaker and needed just one match point to seal the win in 1 hour, 32 minutes. She had beaten Petkovic 6-3, 6-4 on Saturday, when Kerber topped Timea Bacsinszky 6-1, 6-3.
Annika Beck pulled Germany level at 2-2 and ensured the first-round contest would be decided by the doubles match when she defeated Bacsinszky 7-5, 6-4 in her Fed Cup debut.
No. 2-ranked Kerber appeared out of sorts, perhaps weary just eight days after claiming her first Grand Slam title in a three-set victory over Serena Williams in Melbourne.
''I was a little bit tired, especially at the end of the first set, but I was trying to take all my energy from the crowd and the team. But Belinda played very solid to the end, and well done to her,'' Kerber said. ''Today I gave all I had left.''
Switzerland will face the Czech Republic in the semifinals on Apr. 16 and 17.
''I have no idea where we can go but I'm excited to find out,'' Switzerland captain Heinz Guenthardt said. ''Martina is one of the best doubles players in the world right now and Belinda is very solid. This surface is good for Belinda but we knew she had to play at the top of her game and she did.''
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