Raymond makes it hard for Hingis

DEFENDING champion and 1 seed Martina Hingis was having to fight hard in her first round match with unseeded American Lisa Raymond, writes Rhys Williams.

Hingis had to defend a break point in her first service game, was taken to deuce in the next before having to see off a further three the third. Raymond was correspondingly at ease on her own serve, advancing to net on anything short from Hingis and unloading a series of powerful ground-strokes.

But without ever looking unduly troubled, Raymond produced a double fault to give Hingis a break point for which the Swiss converted when Raymond pushed a backhand long. The American, ranked No 19 in world, conjured a trio of excellent service returns to break back immediately for and then held serve to square the match at 5-5. Under intense pressure, Hingis defended more break points before holding serve 6-5 and then breaking Raymond's to take the first 7-5. Raymond, who reached the fourth round last year, was one of just five players to defeat Hingis in 1997, although the Swiss world 1 prevailed in their other two meetings. Meanwhile, No 3 seed Jana Novotna was having a more comfortable time against fellow countrywoman Sandra Kleinova on Court One. After racing to a 3-0 lead with a break in her opponent's first service game, Novotna was then able to sit back for 10 minutes while Kleinova received treatment her right knee. Novotna took the set 6-2, but then dropped her serve for the first time in the match in the first game of the second set. Venus Williams took the first set 6-3 in her match against Canadian Jana Nejedly.

Copyright 1998
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