Hingis Advances to Face Homecountry Schiavone at WTA RomePosted on May 17, 2006 Former No. 1 Martina Hingis continued her march to establish herself as a threat for the French Open in roughly two weeks time, on Tuesday upending No. 12 seed Nicole Vaidisova 7-5, 6-3 from her unseeded position at the Italian Open in Rome.
"She's a very talented player and I'd never played her before," Hingis said of Vaidisova. "At first I had to get used to what she was doing. In the first set I had to speed it up because she was overpowering me. But I'm pleased to have the win behind me and now I'm up against Schiavone, which will be a tough test. I just hope there won't be too much of a crowd there or that they don't get behind her or make too much noise. It is definitely not an easy draw." Aussie Sam Stosur orchestrated the other lone upset on the day, outlasting No. 13 Daniela Hantuchova 6-2, 1-6, 6-3. Seeded winners Tuesday were (7) Svetlana Kuznetsova (d Smashnova), (8) Francesca Schiavone (d. Santangelo, bagel in the second), (9) Venus Williams (d. Safarova), (11) Anna-Lena Groenefeld (d. Razzano in three), (15) Flavia Pennetta (d. (Q) K.Bondarenko in three), and (16) Dinara Safina (d. (Q) Pous Tio). "I'm feeling good. I'm feeling more confident with each match. I hope to win or to get to the final," said Venus, travelling with her dad and impressing fans in her post-match on-court interview by speaking some Italian. Other unseeded winners of note were Katarina Srebotnik halting the comeback of Alicia Molik 2-and-0, Japan's Akiko Morigami advancing when Russian comer Anna Chakvetadze retired in the third set with a thigh strain, and Russian Vera Zvonareva dousing the fire of exhausted Prague winner Shahar Peer 6-0 in the third. Wednesday highlights in Rome include (10) Myskina vs. Vinci, (2) Clijsters vs. (Q) Morigami, (5) Dementieva vs. Peng, (6) Schnyder vs. Dushevina, (4) Petrova vs. Srebotnik, and (17) Dechy vs. Zvonareva. |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||