Well, Hingis has survived her second round with a much more solid performance against Aiko Nakamura of Japan. I wouldn't say that the match was easy, because at times her opponent hit very deep and hard.
But Hingis was much more confident and relaxed. She was serving quite well, hit a total of 7 aces during the match. Which for her is quite rare, but it was nice to see. Unlike her first match she cut down on her unforced errors, only had a total of 10 and 2 double faults as opposed to 6 in the first round.
She saved 2 break points in the first set to take the opening game, as well as the next 2 games to go up 3/0. Her opponent won one game in the first set. The rest was all Hingis who took the set 6/1. In the second set it was the same scenario Hingis took the first 2 games. Her opponent got one game back but Hingis held for 3/1.
Next her opponent saved 3 break points but Hingis won the next 2 games to go up 5/1. Nakamura won the next game. And Martina had to serve for the match. She had 2 match points and double faulted. At this point her opponent seemed to pick up her game, and Martina had to play 5 match points before finally taking the second set 6/2.
The whole match took about an hour, Hingis clearly didn't feel threatened it almost looked like a one hour practice session lol. And Hingis was really enjoying herself and having fun which was so great to see it's been a while.
Usually she is under pressure and on the defensive. Now that I think about it Nakamura was the perfect opponent for Hingis, purely on the fact that she didn't have big weapons to hurt Martina with and she played long rallies.
And let's face it when it comes to long rallies Hingis always has an advantage. It was a great match for her, I hope she wins her next match and moves into the forth round. Erasing the bad memories of the loss last year in the 3rd round to Ai Sugiyama. Whatever happens from then on will just be icing on the cake.
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