Swiss fifth-seeded Martina Hingis won her first match at the
China Open tennis tournament on Tuesday as she defeated Sun
Tiantian of China 6-2, 6-3.
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The 26-year-old Swiss, who is making her debut at a Chinese
tournament Tuesday, has played Sun once before at Miami last year
on hardcourts and won 6-3, 6-2.
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Martina Hingis of
Switzerland waves to the audience during the first round match of
the women's singles against China's Sun Tiantian at the 2007 China
Open Tennis in Beijing, China, on Sept. 18, 2007. Hingis won
2-0.
In Tuesday's match, though Hingis was not in her best form, she
also beat her opponent with her strong, steady ground strokes in 58
minutes.
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After an early exchange of breaks, the two players leveled the
scores, but it was Hingis who pulled away first. Service breaks in
the fourth and eighth games took Hingis to an easy first-set 6-2
win.
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The second set, however, told a different story. Both players
gained their serves and holding two games apiece. Then they traded
breaks in sixth and seventh game. Finally, Hingis regained the
momentum. She broke in the eighth game and won her final service
game to a 6-3 victory.
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In the second round, Martina will play Peng Shuai of China.
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If the Swiss can go further, the first seeded player of the
tournament she can meet is third seed Amelie Mauresmo of France in
the quarters.
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Top seed and defending champion Svetlana Kuznetsova is also on
Martina's side of the draw.
On a day that was not good for Chinese, Grand Slam doubles
winner Yan Zi also tumbled out after losing 7-5, 6-3 to qualifier
Abigail Spears of the United States.
The 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles winner compiled a
stunning performance recently in singles' event on tour, but was
broken five times by her 26-year-old opponent in the match.
Elsewhere, in-form eighth seed Eleni Daniilidou of Greece had a
much easier time of it as she overwhelmed Olga Govortsova from
Belarus 6-2, 6-1, breaking the 19-year-old youngster six times in
all.
There were good fortunes for Japan as the Japanese No. 2 and 3
Aiko Nakamura and Akiko Morigami both earned straight sets win in
the first round, beating Lourdes Dominguez Lino 6-1, 7-6(4) and
seventh seed Anabel Medina Garrigues 6-4, 6-4, both from Spain.
The only bad news that came to organizers of the US$600,000
event was the persistent rain which fell down for the second
consecutive day, but it ceased in time for them to revise the order
of play and make it fully-packed on all playing courts.
The top four seeds, however, eluded the rain breaks in the past
two days as they all enjoyed bye in the first round.
Russia's second and fourth seeds Svetlana Kuznetsova and Elena
Dementieva at Tuesday's press conference both expressed that the
Beijing Olympics, just one year out, has been in sight of
Russia.
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"I think the Olympic Games is more important (than the tour). To
represent my own country is an honor to me. I hope I can represent
Russia again next year to participate in the Beijing Olympic Games.
So I decide to come here and know more about the city," said
Dementieva.
While world No. 2 Kuznetsova noted that the Russian team will
prepare for the Olympics Games carefully and even "have a chance to
win the title."
(Xinhua News Agency September 19, 2007)
