Former world number one Martina Hingis continued her fairytale return to Grand Slam tennis with a 6-1, 7-6 victory over local hope Samantha Stosur in the fourth round of the Australian Open on Monday.
Hingis, who retired in 2002 with ankle and foot injuries after winning five Grand Slam titles, made her return to competitive tennis earlier this month at the Australian hardcourt championships on the Gold Coast.
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"Making the last eight coming into this event, I would have never thought I got that far. Now here I am, (and) no one can take that away from me."
The 25-year-old Swiss started in impressive fashion, displaying the skills that allowed her to dominate women's tennis in the late 1990s.
She placed Stosur under intense pressure from the fourth game of the first set, breaking to establish a 3-1 lead and then racing away with the next three games to seal the first set in 23 minutes, slotting a backhand winner at set point.
The Swiss was successful with an astonishing 82 percent of her first serves, allowing her to attack with groundstrokes and run the 98th-ranked Stosur all over the court.
BROKEN SERVE
The second set, however, would prove much more difficult for Hingis.
After Stosur's serve was broken in the third game, the stubborn Australian fought back to set up a crowd-pleasing run of games dominated by long rallies and both players squandering serve.
Hingis's serve looked particularly vulnerable as she tired, with the speed of the first serve dropping markedly away.
Momentum swung back and forth before Stosur broke to level the set at 6-6 and take the match to a tie-breaker.
Stosur raced out to a 5-2 lead, but the greater experience of Hingis eventually told and she fought back to seal victory on her fourth match point, setting up a quarter-final with world number two Kim Clijsters.
"I played really well (in) I would say one and a half sets," said Hingis.
"At 5-3, 30-0, I'm like, 'please, two more points' and it took me a while till we finished that match.
"She's a great fighter. She started attacking more. Also partly because I was getting tired or just loosened up a little.
"But I think it was toward the end, it was all nerves. "Being down 5-2 in the tie-breaker, I was just happy to finish it off in straight sets."
WEAKNESSES
Stosur said she noticed Hingis's weaknesses and tried to exploit them.
"As the match went on, I kind of found what I needed to be doing a bit better," Stosur said. "I think she started getting a little bit tired.
"I just started grinding it out and just fighting for every point and came within two points of getting the set.
Stosur said if the match had gone to a third set she felt she could have ground out the win.
"I think I was on the right track to doing that.
"(But) I mean, she's just an awesome player (and) now playing her, I know why she's won all these Grand Slams and why she's probably going to go down as one of the greats ever."
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