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SAN DIEGO (Reuters) - In her first match since back-to-back embarrassing
displays, Switzerland's Martina Hingis reverted back to her old form Tuesday
with a hard-fought 7-5, 6-3 victory over American Chanda Rubin at the $520,000
TIG Tennis Classic.
Third seed and four-time champion Steffi Graf of Germany takes on American
Amy Frazier Tuesday night in a second-round match. Graf defeated Hingis
in an emotionally charged three-set final at the French Open and lost to
American Lindsay Davenport in the Wimbledon final.
Hingis, the second seed and 1997 champion, fell behind 2-4 in the opening
set before breaking back in the next game.
After breaking Rubin to take a 5-4 lead, Hingis was broken as she served
for the set. But the Swiss teenager broke Rubin in the next game for a
6-5 lead and served out the set.
With the momentum on her side, Hingis immediately broke Rubin in the
opening game of the second set and never lost her serve again, securing
a quarterfinal berth with her fifth break.
Hingis' surprising 6-2, 6-0 loss to Australian teenager Jelena Dokic
in the first round at Wimbledon was her worst Grand Slam result in five
years and came on the heels of her setback to Graf at Roland Garros.
Hingis was booed off the court in Paris after the 18-year-old repeatedly
challenged calls and even walked over to Graf's side of the court.
After her loss in London, Hingis took several weeks away from the game
to sort out her personal and professional life. She took a break from her
coach and mother, Melanie Molitor, who is back with her this week.
Hingis has won four titles this season, including the Australian Open,
and improved to 44-7 overall with Tuesday's win.
Rubin could not duplicate her performance of five months ago, when she
defeated Hingis -- ranked No. 1 at the time -- in the quarterfinals at
the Evert Cup in Indian Wells, California.
Graf also is competing in her first event since her loss to Davenport
in London in what turned out to be the German's last appearance at the
All-England Club.
The German star, who has hinted at retiring at the end of the season,
has won 13 of her last 14 matches and brings a 16-5 record on hardcourts
into this event. She won this tournament in 1989-1990 and 1993-94.
In first-round action, sixth seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain got
past Russia's Elena Likhovtseva, 6-2, 1-6, 6-4, and seventh seed Amanda
Coetzer of South Africa rallied past American Lisa Raymond, 6-7 (1-7),
6-1, 6-1.
German qualifier Anke Huber posted the lone upset of the day session
as she upended eighth seed Nathalie Tauziat of France, 6-3, 6-1.
Also, Russian teenager Anna Kournikova defeated American qualifier Meilen
Tu, 6-2, 7-6 (7-3); Natasha Zvereva of Belarus raced past Fabiola Zuluaga
of Colombia, 6-2, 6-1; and Dominique Van Roost of Belgium beat Canada's
Maureen Drake, 6-3, 7-5.
Tuesday night, Australian Open runner-up Amelie Mauresmo takes on Sandrine
Testud in an all-French affair. Davenport, the top seed, is one-third of
the way toward duplicating her California sweep of a year ago. She is 16-1
in her last 17 matches in her home state, dating to last year, when she
swept all three summer hardcourt tournaments in California.
The only loss for the 23-year-old Newport Beach resident in that span
was to American Serena Williams at Indian Wells in March.
Davenport successfully defended her title at the Bank of the West Classic
in Stanford Sunday, defeating Serena's older sister Venus, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2.
The reigning Wimbledon champion is 33-5 this season, including 18-3 on
hard courts and will try to win her second straight U.S. Open later this
summer.
Seeded fourth, Venus Williams tries to rebound from her loss in Sunday's
final as she seeks her fifth title of the year. She is 36-7 in 1999 and
has won 13 of 14 matches on hardcourts. Her loss to Davenport was just
her fourth in 24 matches on hard surfaces this season.
Davenport, Hingis, Graf and Williams all received first-round byes.
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