Martina Hingis continues her WTT winning ways with McEnroe

RADNOR — The match was officially billed as the Philadelphia Freedoms hosting the New York Sportimes, but few seemed to notice or care.

After all, it’s not every day that John McEnroe and Martina Hingis make their way to the Villanova Pavilion, so you’ll have to excuse the fans if they were more excited about getting a glimpse of two tennis legends than trying to figure out if the Freedoms could string together their second win in as many nights.

As it turns out, McEnroe and Hingis still can conjure up images of their younger days on the court. McEnroe dazzled the crowd with the speed that made him so successful and Hingis still can position her opponent wherever she wants to. Both helped the Sportimes to a 21-19 overtime win over the Freedoms in a World Team Tennis battle Wednesday night.

“It’s always nice to end on a good way,” McEnroe said of his and Travis Parrott’s doubles win over Nathan Healey and Brendan Evans. “We were sort of choking when we let them back into it and let them send it to overtime, but we were able to get the last point.”

Melanie Oudin said before the game that she had heard that Hingis, who has 14 total Grand Slam titles, still had the ability to take on anyone. Their battle in the women’s singles match more than confirmed that fact. Hingis had Oudin on the run from the beginning, jumping to a 3-1 lead early before finishing the 19-year-old off by a 5-3 margin.

“I felt good and I was excited (coming into Wednesday). I’m feeling good right now, especially since I’m winning and we’re winning in doubles,” Hingis said. “(Oudin) took the first game, so it was on right away, but I was able to come back. She’s a real player.”

Earlier, the women’s doubles match saw Hingis and Katie O’Brien combine to easily down Oudin and Lisa Raymond, 5-1. Hingis and O’Brien took control early and made Oudin and Raymond pay for their aggressiveness with deep lobs over their heads that the Freedoms pair was unable to catch up to.

With the Freedoms down 9-6 after two matches, the team of Raymond and Nathan Healey combined to stun the duo of Hingis and McEnroe. McEnroe and Hingis took an early lead and appeared to be on cruise control, but Raymond and Healey refused to give up and sent the final game to a tiebreak. Healey then smashed a lob past Hingis and McEnroe for the winning point to whittle New York’s lead to 13-11.

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