Martina Hingis breezed to victory on Tuesday in her first match back at Wimbledon, five years after her last appearance here and nine years on since the Swiss star won the title as a 16-year-old.
Despite the 6-2, 6-2 margin, the 12th seed was made to work hard by Ukrainian Olga Savchuk in the rain-disrupted match, which was carried over from Monday.
The former world number one took 62 minutes to secure a second-round tie against either Italian Tathiana Garbin or British wild card Katie O’Brien.
Hingis, who became Wimbledon’s youngest champion in 1997, had retired from tennis in 2002 due to an ankle injury and was playing her first match back on grass.
After three years out of action, Hingis has defied the odds by making a successful comeback. A quarterfinalist in both the Australian and French Opens this year, the Swiss won her first title for four years at Rome in May.
Wimbledon’s Court Two is dubbed the ”graveyard” as so many big names have tumbled there — and Hingis knows how easy it is to slip up in the early stages, having twice lost Wimbledon first-round matches.
But the Swiss was always in control and showed off her impeccable groundstrokes and gritty determination against 18-year-old Savchuk, who was making her Wimbledon debut.
Although the Ukrainian world number 102 had far more power, Hingis more than enough precision in her arsenal to win.
Savchuk was broken in the fourth game and held off set point five times in a nine-deuce eighth game.
But five-time Grand Slam winner Hingis finally sealed the opening set in 32 minutes by scampering into the net to play a drop shot before rain stopped play on Monday.
When the second set began on Tuesday, Hingis served out the first game to love.
Savchuk levelled matters and the next four games went to deuce, the first three eventually going with serve before Hingis broke with a sliced drop shot, which was too good for her opponent, to make it 4-2.
Hingis was taken to deuce again but held her serve to take her within sight of victory.
She broke her opponent once again to seal the second set in half an hour and was treated to a rousing ovation by the crowd. — AFP
