Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis have developed a friendly rivalry over who can dispose of their opponents quickest in the Australian Open’s early stages.
The two former world number ones have both been in dominant form at the season-opening Grand Slam, where a scheduling coincidence has meant they took to the court at the same time for their matches in the first two rounds.
Clijsters said after the first round they joked about who had been on court the longest.
”We almost won at around the same time and then we came into the locker room and we started laughing and she’s like ‘damn, you beat me, you were there first’,” she said.
”Then today, as well, we were waiting at the office, at the practice desk to be escorted out and she’s like ‘I hope I’m going to get here before you get here’.
”So we were just kind of joking and laughing, but it’s fun, that’s what’s so good about it.”
So far, Clijsters has the edge over Hingis in beating up her early opponents.
The tournament fourth seed scored a rare ”double bagel” when crushing Russian Vasilia Bardina 6-0, 6-0 in just 44 minutes in the first round then swept aside Akiko Morigami of Japan 6-3, 6-0 in 59 minutes.
Hingis downed France’s Nathalie Dechy 6-0, 6-2 in 54 minutes in her opening game and took a relatively leisurely one hour eight minutes to get past Russian Alla Kudryavtseva 6-2, 6-2 in the second round.
Fourth seed Hingis and Clijsters will face one another if they make it to the quarterfinals.
The Belgian dumped Hingis out of the tournament at the same stage last year, when the Swiss Miss was returning from a three-year layoff. She also defeated Hingis in the French Open quarters and a hardcourt tournament in San Diego.
The overall record between the pair is four wins each, with Hingis’ victories coming between 2000-02, when she was the dominating women’s tennis and Clijsters was emerging.
Clijsters said there was no tension between the pair.
”We’re friends off the court, and you can laugh and say those kind of things,” she said. ”Once you get on the court, if we get to play each other, it’s all business but from the moment that it’s done, then those kind of things [friendship] should be possible, I think.” – AFP
