Moving Along Now...

While I've been suffering from a post-Australian Open hangover, the pro tennis world has been turning. Martina Hingis, who went out in the quarterfinal of the AO to Kim Clijsters but won in the mixed doubles, is playing in Tokyo at the Toray Pan Pacific Open. After defeating world # 61 Yoon-Jeung Cho in a first round drubbing (6-0,6-0), Hingis faced the much tougher Nathalie Dechy (ranked #21 in the world) in the second round.

From Asahi.com:

Hingis acknowledged that she got off to a shaky start against Dechy, but as the match wore on she started to find her groove. In the third set, she broke Dechy's serve in the second game and broke her again in the eighth game to seal the victory.

"I was a little nervous going into (Thursday's) match," said Hingis, who recently returned to pro tennis after ankle injuries forced her to take a three-year sabbatical. "I hadn't played (Dechy) in a while and she pushed me right away, but I adjusted to the way she was returning and I started reading her returns a little better Thank God I still have those skills, that was my saving grace."

Martina's won four Pan Pacific Open titles in the past, but she'll need to face Maria Kirilenko in the quarterfinal before possibly meeting defending champion Maria Sharapova in the semifinal. Sharapova's quarterfinal opponent is Samantha Stosur, whom Hingis defeated in three sets at the Australian Open.

Meanwhile, sunny Florida is hosting part of the men's tour at Delray Beach. After a brouhaha concerning whether Andy Roddick would play the qualifying rounds and the later revelation that he wasn't, the tournament certainly got itself off to a flying start with regard to media coverage. (If you're interested, there's a full wrap-up of the incident in two posts at Roddick Watch.)

Andre Agassi is the tournament's headliner, but almost crashed out in the second round to Ramon Delgado. The #1 seed won the match with a scoreline of 4-6, 7-6(4), 6-0. From the tournament website:

Agassi found himself down quickly in this match despite an early break in the first set. He was leading 4-2 when Delgado won four straight games and the set to the surprise of the more than 5,000 who came out on a cool night in South Florida.

In the 10th game of the second set with Agassi serving and Delgado leading 5-4, Agassi faced two match points but erased both with winning volleys. The 35-year-old went up 4-1 in the tie-breaker before closing it out 7-4.

The third set was all Agassi as Delgado won only eight points.

The only other American left in the singles draw is Vince Spadea, who is now a quarterfinalist after defeating fellow American Robert Kendrick. Spadea, who at one time held the longest losing streak in the history of the ATP, is compiling his first set of consecutive victories in singles since the beginning of 2006.

***

UPDATE: Unfortunately for all the players I discussed previously, none of them won the titles for which they were contenders. Hingis blew past Sharapova 6-3,6-1 in the Toray Pan Pacific semifinal and moved into the final where she faced Elena Dementieva. The two players had met 4 times previously in their career, with Dementieva taking the last two matches. This match proved to be no different, as Dementieva overwhelmed Hingis 6-2,6-0.

From CNN.com:

Dementieva had beaten the Swiss 6-3 6-1 in Filderstadt in October 2002 in what was Hingis's last match before chronic ankle trouble forced her into early retirement.

[...]

Hingis was unranked three weeks ago but climbed to 117th after her strong run in Melbourne.

Her ranking is still set to rise to just outside the top 50 after reaching her seventh Tokyo final.

Dementieva will climb from ninth to eighth following her first tournament win since 2004 when she also reached two grand slam finals.

Prior to the beginning of the Toray Pan Pacific tournament, Sharapova said that Hingis could soon be in the Top 10. If Hingis keeps racking up these results and troubling the world's top women players, I trust that she could very well make Sharapova's prediction come true. It seems to me that Hingis has trouble with the match-up against Dementieva, but it was a satisfying run nevertheless. Dementieva is also making up lost ground after her shock first round upset at the Australian Open this year. From various reports, I've read that Dementieva served very well against Hingis, but I didn't see the tournament on TV. Has she finally fixed her serve, which has been the butt of many jokes since she jumped into the Top 10?

As for Agassi and Spadea at the Delray Beach tournament, neither of them made the final. Agassi was upset in the quarterfinals by Guillermo Garcia-Lopez of Spain. Spadea went one round better than the top seed, making the semifinal by beating unseeded Hyung Taik-Lee. Spadea and Tommy Haas faced off in the semifinal, and it seemed as if Haas was taking revenge on Spadea (for beating him in a practice match 6-3,6-0) by easing through in straight sets. Garcia-Lopez was defeated by Xavier Malisse, which would have set up another Battle of the Ponytails between himself and Haas, had Tommy not gotten rid of the ponytail. So it was the Battle of the Bolletierri kids (both players being alumni of the famous/infamous academy), and by all accounts it was a close one.

From the tournament website:

"It was extremely good tennis from beginning to end," understated Haas. "Based on Xavier's record in Delray Beach I'm proud to beat him here. He's a solid player, moves well and it showed today. I thought I was playing pretty good and when I needed to step it up a level, I did."

[...]

"He wasn't making any mistakes, " said Malisse, who has played in two finals in his first three tournaments of 2006. "I just had to keep grinding and I had to play more aggressive in the second and third sets and it worked well for me."

Both Haas and Malisse played close to textbook tennis in splitting the first two sets. Haas went up a break in the sixth game to win the first set and Malisse got his break in the eighth game of the second set.

"I was pleased with my game overall (this week)," said Haas. "I could have lost two matches here so this is a good result."

Despite the loss, Malisse was positive about his week in Delray Beach and his fourth trip to the finals here. "I'm feeling good about my game--two finals in three touraments. I didn't expect that great a start."

Haas certainly seems to be in a good groove lately, and he's been fortunate so far this year to avoid injuries and tragedy which have dogged him through the past few years.

The first round Davis Cup world group ties are to be played from February 10 to 12. That's this weekend, folks. I'm taking a break but will be back to write about the results of that.

posted by Noelle De Guzman @ 11:29 AM