|
Post by Admin on Apr 6, 2015 20:50:42 GMT
The No.2-seeded Makarova and Vesnina came out strong, storming out to a 5-2 lead, but the No.1-seeded Hingis and Mirza came alive from there, reeling off eight games in a row - even staving off a set point - to surge ahead, 7-5, 3-0. They barely looked back to close out the Russian pairing, 7-5, 6-1. "The most important thing is that we never stopped believing we're a great team," Hingis said of the early deficit. "They played a great set to get us to that position, 5-2 down. Then we just tried to stay in there and get our chances. We just built on every point, which is what we did well last week too. "Today the coaching really turned it around - your dad came on court," Hingis said to Mirza. "We just tried to keep telling each other to enjoy the struggle," Mirza said. "Last week everything came very, very easily to us - we didn't lose more than four games in a set. Over here we were down, and we were panicking. It was like, 'Oh my God, we're not playing well.' We just weren't used to that. But it's good to fight through those matches and believe, and come out now and be like, 'At 5-3 I was gutsy to hit a big serve,' or she made a huge move at 5-4, if that makes sense. So it's good." It has been an absolute dream start for Hingis and Mirza - the two Premier Mandatory events in Indian Wells and Miami were their first two tournaments playing together. They're now 10-0 together, and even more impressively, they haven't lost a single set along the way - they're 20-0 in sets together. Hingis now has 43 WTA doubles titles to her name, which matches the 43 WTA singles titles she's won in her career. Meanwhile, Mirza took home the milestone 25th WTA doubles title of her career. Both teams will also make big moves up the Road To Singapore doubles leaderboard, the year-long journey to the doubles event at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global. Makarova and Vesnina will go from No.2 to No.1, while Hingis and Mirza will go from No.9 to No.3.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 18, 2015 20:52:04 GMT
When Martina Hingis began yet another comeback on the WTA Tour, she wasn't just returning to play tennis again -- she was returning to win again. "That's my nature," she said during the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells earlier this month. "When I first started, it was like, 'OK, am I ready enough, am I good enough?' That's what actually got me back. "I wouldn't do it if I didn't feel like I still had game." It's more than a feeling. The 34-year-old from Switzerland teamed up with Sania Mirza for the first time at Indian Wells last week and won the title. This after winning the mixed doubles title with Leander Paes at the Australian Open and the women's doubles title in Brisbane playing with Sabine Lisicki. Hingis now stands at No. 5 in the WTA Tour's doubles rankings. With the top team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci deciding to go their separate ways, it seems likely that Mirza, who is ranked third, and Hingis could be the best team in the world in short order. Hingis and Mirza are the No. 1 seeds this week at the Miami Open, a tournament Hingis won last year alongside Lisicki. All this is an unlikely career twist for Hingis, who spent 209 weeks as the No. 1 singles player in the world and won five solo Grand Slam titles, the last coming 16 years ago at the at the 1999 Australian Open. But Hingis is committed to her doubles career, and even if today's matches don't come with the same attention and tension as her big singles performances, they're not taken lightly. "No, this is still part of my career," Hingis said. "People pay attention. I consider myself fortunate to be in this position, still being able to play tennis competitively."
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Apr 20, 2015 20:31:49 GMT
Former world number one Martina Hingis lost 6-4 6-0 to Agnieszka Radwanska in the Fed Cup as she returned to singles tennis after an eight-year absence. The 34-year-old Swiss twice fought back from a break down in the first set before losing it. Polish world number nine Radwanska, 26, then dominated a 28-minute second set. Her sister, Ursula, lost 6-2 6-1 to Timea Bacsinszky to make the score 1-1 between Poland and Switzerland in the World Group play-off. Hingis, a five-time Grand Slam singles champion, was expected to play only doubles in her first Fed Cup tie for 17 years. "I'm proud of my performance and looking forward to tomorrow," she said. "I feel like I definitely have the game to hold on with the best in the world, especially Radwanska. She's not a power player, hitting bombs right and left. "I felt like I was right there, but that's what makes her a top 10 player - she doesn't give you a point for free and sometimes you wish you didn't have to fight for every single point. That made the difference in the first set." The Swiss initially retired in 2003, aged 22, because of injuries. She returned in 2005 but retired again in 2007, which coincided with a two-year suspension for a positive drugs test. Hingis, whose appearance makes her eligible for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio, is scheduled to play Ursula Radwanska in the fourth rubber on Sunday before partnering Bacsinszky in the concluding doubles match. In another World Group play-off match, Serena Williams defeated Camila Giorgi 7-6 (7-5) 6-2 to give USA the lead over Italy , before Sara Errani levelled the tie with a 6-1 6-2 victory over Lauren Davis.
|
|
|
Post by Admin on May 11, 2015 20:04:33 GMT
Though she and Sania Mirza didn’t win the Mutua Madrid Open title, by virtue of their quarterfinal result – and Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci‘s points falling off from last year – Martina Hingis has passed the now-split up Italian pair, going from No.4 to No.2 on the WTA Doubles Rankings. It’s the highest ranking of Hingis’ comeback to the doubles tour, which she began in 2013. This is also the first time she’s been in the Top 2 on the WTA Doubles Rankings for almost 14 years. She spent 110 non-consecutive weeks in the Top 2 between April 14, 1997 and June 10, 2001, which included 35 weeks at No.1 and 75 weeks at No.2 – and now she racks up her 111th career week. Hingis and the current No.1, Mirza, have had a dream start to their partnership, winning their first three tournaments together at Indian Wells, Miami and Charleston, and though they left Stuttgart and Madrid without the title, they are still a phenomenal 15-2 together since first joining forces in March. After Mirza became the first Indian woman to rise to No.1 in tennis five weeks ago, the pair was asked about their future goals – and Hingis joining Mirza at No.1 was clearly on both of their minds. “It’s like everything is a bonus,” Hingis said. “I’m just really enjoying the moment. The longer you play in your career, the more you can also enjoy it and lean back, especially in doubles. As for No.1, it will come with the results. I was never the kind of person who was chasing No.1. You need to move yourself and win the matches. For me it’s more like business – you have to do your thing on the court. “Right now I think the pressure is off, to be honest. I know Sania and I can play well at any time, any surface, anywhere. We’re a very solid team and we’re the ones to be chased after right now.”
|
|
|
Post by Admin on Jul 12, 2015 19:57:56 GMT
Martina Hingis has waited 17 years - half her life - to add to her three Wimbledon titles. The wait is over after a topsy-turvy, tooth-and-nail women's doubles final in which the 34-year-old Swiss and her partner, India's Sania Mirza, defeated the formidable Russian pairing of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. The match started on Centre Court in bright sunshine and finished under the roof and floodlights, two and a half hours later, with Hingis and Mirza finally prevailing 5-7, 7-6, 7-5. Hingis may have won bigger individual prizes but the way that she and Mirza bunny-hopped around the court after coming through match point, finishing with a celebratory arse-bump, suggested that few victories have given her such satisfaction. (This is The Best Tennis I've Ever Played: Sania) Perhaps they were surprised because it was, to be frank, a match that Hingis and Mirza rarely looked like winning. For most of it, Makarova and Vesnina were powerful and merciless. Vesnina, who announced each involvement in a rally with a glass-shattering shriek, smashed volleys like they had personally insulted her, while Makarova served faultlessly, at least until she served for the match at 5-3 in the final set. That Hingis came through may have partly been down to a champion's muscle memory, but the overwhelming support of the Centre Court crowd must have helped, too. Doubles tennis, by its nature, is collaborative, but it was hard for this final not to dominated by the narrative of one person with a dramatic personal history. Almost inconceivably, Hingis won her first Wimbledon prize, the girls' singles title, as a precocious 13-year-old in 1994. She first claimed the senior doubles title here two years later, aged 15, and then won her one and only singles championship here the following summer. Her last significant victory at Wimbledon came in the women's doubles in 1998, when she was partnered by Jana Novotna.
|
|