Martina Hingis returned with a bang by winning the WTA Tour with Daniela Hantuchova for a 6-1, 6-1 against Julia Goerges and Darija Jurak on Wednesday in the Southern California Open at Carlsbad.
It can be recollected that the ‘Swiss Miss’ has retired twice earlier, the first time in early 2003 at 22 and subsequently the last time in November 2007.
Ana Ivanovic crashed in to the second round by thrashing defending champion Dominika Cibulkova by 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in singles. The seventh-seeded Serb Ivanovic won 9 of the final 11 games. In fact, she used a strong ground-game to overpower Cibulkova-the Slovak who came off a victory on Sunday in the Bank of the West Classic at Stanford.
Ivanovic, who is the former top-ranked singles player and 2008 French Open champion revealed that as soon as the draw emerged, she thought it was one of the toughest first-round matches, especially being a seeded player. But she was really glad with her performance.
In another match, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus trounced Francesca Schiavone of Italy by 6-2, 6-3 in the 2nd round. In fact, Azarenka was playing her first match since quitting from her 2nd-round match at Wimbledon due to knee and hip injuries. Azarenka expressed that just going on the court and competing was so much joy for her. She was really playing and glad to be doing something she was training for. She doesn’t think about injuries.
Ivanovic, who fired coach Nigel Sears following her 2nd-round loss at Wimbledon, admitted that she has been working on being consistent and working on that confidence part too. Truly, it plays a big role. She felt like her game has been there at times but not her confidence.
Third-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic as well as fourth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy encountered few problems in winning their opening matches following receiving first-round byes. Further, Kvitova advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 6-2 victory over teenager Laura Robson of Britain. In fact, the victory avenged Kvitova’s 2nd-round loss to Robson at the Australian Open in January. Vinci hammered Bethanie Mattek-Sands of America by 6-4.
