It was down to the final four today at the State Farm Women's Tennis Classic. The much anticipated
twelfth career meeting between Martina Hingis and Serena Williams packed the stadium court this
afternoon.
Martina Hingis (#2) vs. Serena Williams (#3) (Semis)
Head to Head: Hingis leads series 6-5 (Last Meeting: Williams, 2001US Open, SF, 6-3, 6-2)
The rivalry between Martina Hingis and Serena Williams continued today, with Williams hoping to even
the score with Hingis. Ten of their eleven previous meetings have occurred on the hard courts, with both
winning five matches. Both of have shown some rusty play here in Scottsdale, with Williams competing
in only her second tournament of the year and Hingis trying to shake losing a second set at love from her
winning effort last night against Daja Bedanova last night.
Hingis won the toss and elected to serve. Williams showed her power immediately, smacking a Hingis 69-
mph second serve for a winner. A few more winners by Williams broke the Hingis serve for the early lead.
As she had done earlier week, Williams's serve did not start well as she quickly fell down 0-30. But
Williams has also shown some remarkable resiliency this week and fought back to consolidate the break.
Hingis remained shaky on serve in the third game, but held to get on to the scoreboard. It would be
Hingis's only game of the first set. Not including her hold game, Hingis won only three points on her
serve in three other service games. In addition to her serving problems, Hingis committed her fair share of
unforced errors and likewise did not have much depth on her groundstrokes, allowing Williams to step in
and hit winners. The first set went to Williams 6-1, on three service breaks, in 22 minutes.
With the first set over in nearly a blink of an eye, it was evident that Hingis better needed to harness the
Williams's power and clean up her own game. Thankfully for Hingis, this occurred. She held serve to even
the first set at 1-1 and a sloppy game by Williams allowed Hingis to break the serve for the first time in the
match to gain a 2-1 lead. Hingis increased the depth of her groundstrokes in the second and seemed to
better adjust to the Williams's power game. Gusty conditions also was not allowing Williams to serve as
big as she had earlier in the week as she was only occasionally cracking serves over the 100-mph mark in
this match. A double fault on break point in the ninth game gave Hingis her second break and the set at 6-3
in 32 minutes.
With the momentum shifting back to Hingis, Williams was woman on a mission at the start of the third set
and earned a break for the early 1-0 lead. Hingis earned two break points in the very next game to try and
get the set back on serve but was denied both times, first by a forehand approach winner by Williams and
then a failed lob attempt that sailed long. Williams's serve continued to give her problems with two double
faults in the fourth game, but Hingis was unable to earn a break point. Little separated the two players in
the final set, but down the early break there seemed little that Hingis could do to get the match back even.
Williams went unchallenged on serve in the eighth game winning it at love and punctuated the match with
a 113-mph ace (her best of the day) for a 6-1, 3-6, 6-4 victory in 1hour and 36 minutes.
Despite the loss, in her post match press conference, Hingis appeared pleased with her performance.
Hingis noted that she was not overwhelmed by Williams's power game and that was certainly the case after
the first set. Hingis felt that if she gave Williams more of a match in the first set perhaps she could have
broken down Williams much more effectively in the final two sets. She also graciously acknowledged
Williams's ability to come back this strong after over a month off due to injury.
Williams was thrilled with the first set. On paper, she did play a near flawless set with twelve winners and
no unforced errors to Hingis's no winners and nine unforced errors. After the match, Williams was also
questioned about an audible obscenity code violation she received in the fourth game of the second set.
Williams had screamed out during the missed volley, but most of the crowd appeared unaware of an use of
profanity. But the deeply religious Williams, appeared genuinely embarrassed when admitting to the
utterance. In a quite sincere moment, Williams said she asked God for forgiveness on the court and also
wanted to apologize to the fans.
Williams moves into her first final of the year where she will face the winner of today's night match
between the top seeded Jennifer Capriati and the surprise semifinalist, Nathalie Dechy. Williams will be
defending the family honor should she meet Capriati in the final. If Capriati were to defeat Serena
tomorrow, Capriati will recapture the top spot in the computer rankings from sister Venus.