Tennis: Davenport heaps praise on Hingis

Martina Hingis (pictureed) is on track to meet powerful Frenchwoman Mary Pierce. Picture / Reuters

MELBOURNE - World No 1 Lindsay Davenport yesterday backed comeback queen Martina Hingis to cope with tennis' power punchers.

Hingis stunned observers at the Australian Open when, in only her sixth match after a three-year injury layoff, she dismissed 30th seeded Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-2.

Always a wily tactician, the major question mark has been how Hingis would cope with the heavily-built baseline blasters.

But Davenport, one of the game's big hitters who yesterday disposed of Croatian Karolina Sprem in straight sets, was convinced the Swiss star would find a way to win.

"She always found a way around it before," Davenport said. "People have always kind of said that about her.

"More than anything the girl finds a way to win and finds a way to get her opponent uncomfortable."

Hingis is on track to meet French star Mary Pierce, a powerful baseliner whose own comeback launched her into the finals of the French and US Opens last year.

"If she gets through to play Mary that will be a really interesting match and another great test for the other players and the fans to see exactly where Martina is at," Davenport said.

All the players tried to focus on one perceived weakness in Hingis' game when she was World No 1 in the late 1990s, Davenport said.

"Back then you had to make her feel bad about her second serve because it was ... a shot you could definitely take advantage of," she said.

"She seemed to, if you could attack that, lose more and more confidence on it."

Davenport, meanwhile, declared herself on target after her second round win, describing her fourth clash with Sprem as the toughest yet.

"It was a really tough match," she said. "But I was able to play well when I needed to and get through a tough opponent early on."

Defending champion Serena Williams blasted unseeded Frenchwoman Camille Pin off the court yesterday to move into the third round.

Williams showed no signs of fatigue after being run around in her first-round win over China's Li Na on Monday, beating Pin 6-3, 6-1 in just 49 minutes.

The former world No 1 overcame a break in the third game to fire off four successive games and take control of the first set.

The 13th seed overwhelmed Pin in the second set, bludgeoning ground strokes past the scrambling Frenchwoman to set up a third round clash with Slovakia's Daniela Hantuchova, the 17th seed.

Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne beat Hana Sromova 7-6, 6-1.

The Czech provided eighth seed Henin with stubborn resistance in the opening set but faded in the second when she injured her left ankle.

Henin has replaced Kim Clijsters as the bookies' favourite to win the title after a brilliant start to the season and has yet to drop a set in her two matches so far.

There were two early surprises in the men's event with 13th seed Robby Ginepri and 17th seed Radek Stepanek both losing in five sets.

Ginepri fell 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3 to German Denis Gremelmayr while Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus eliminated Stepanek 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 0-6, 7-5.

TOP RESULTS

1-Lindsay Davenport (US) bt Karolina Sprem (Croatia) 7-6 (4), 6-3

6-Nadia Petrova (Russia) bt Martina Mueller (Germany)

13-Serena Williams (United States) bt Camille Pin (France) 6-3, 6-1

18-Mario Ancic (Croatia, Heineken Open finalist) bt Jan Hernych (Czech Republic) 6-1, 6-4, 6-4

7-Ivan Ljubicic (Croatia) bt Philipp Kohlschreiber (Germany) 7-5, 6-2, 6-1

Denis Gremelmayr (Germany) bt 13-Robby Ginepri (US) 2-6, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, 6-3

TODAY'S ACTION

1-Roger Federer (Switzerland) v Florian Mayer (Germany)

3-Lleyton Hewitt (Australia) v Juan Ignacio Chela (Argentina)

Meng Yuan (China) v 2-Kim Clijsters (Belgium)

Emilie Loit (France) v 3-Amelie Mauresmo (France)

- AAP, REUTERS