Novotna and Hingis Advance to the Quarterfinals; Canadian Open, Thursday, August 20 By Chris Gerby

Jana Novotna vs. Silvia Farina
Singles: 3rd Round
Court 1

  A warm morning greeted Czech star Jana Novotna and unseeded Silvia Farina for their third round match. Posting wins over Barbara Schett and Mary Joe Fernandez, plus a pair of impressive doubles performances, Farina came in looking like a very dangerous floater. However, the occasion may have been too much for her, as she looked tight from the get go. Perhaps that's why Farina chose to receive rather than test her nerves by serving right away. That strategy proved academic -- Novotna held and broke, taking an early 2-0 lead. Farina errors had keyed those games, but Novotna looked very sharp in the third, knocking off a trademark volley winner and thumping an ace.

  Down 0-15 in the fourth game, Farina threw up a desperate defensive lob which fell for a winner. That seemed to loosen her up a bit and she went on to hold for 3-1. Novotna was not about to give anything away, though. She put up another hold and a break, with everything from the slice backhand to the volleys working like a charm. Novotna didn't hesitate in serving out the set -- she won Game 7 at love and reacted with a Graf-esque thigh slap. Novotna had put on a virtual clinic in the 6-1 set. She came up with some more sterling stuff in the opening game of the second set. Farina helped out with a double fault and immediately found herself down a break.

  The positive body language continued from Novotna -- she pumped her fist after a forehand winner in the set's second game, a hold for 2-0. A few errors started to creep into her game, however, and Farina took advantage. She showed her first real signs of life when she ripped a backhand winner down the line to hold for 3-2 and let out a quiet but forceful "yes!" Novotna held at love for 4-2, but Farina -- looking much more comfortable now -- answered with a routine hold of her own. One got the impression that Farina could have put together a come-from-behind rally here if the opponent had been struggling. Novotna was still in good form, though, especially in her service games. Another love hold put her up 5-3 and elicited another fist pump. Jana then got to within two points of victory at 30-30 in Game 9, but barely missed a couple volleys.

  Novotna got her first match point, leading 6-1, 5-4 and 40-15. She double faulted there, but it was just a brief hiccup in a mostly strong performance. Farina put a backhand into the net a couple strokes into the next point, wrapping up a 6-1, 6-4 loss for the Italian. Novotna seems to have come into this tournament with relatively low expectations for herself, just hoping to play her way into form after a layoff, but after her convincing showing on Thursday, I'd say her game is already back in the vicinity of its top level.

Martina Hingis vs. Ai Sugiyama
Singles: 3rd Round
Centre Court

  Once upon a time (at the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta), Ai Sugiyama actually beat Martina Hingis. Sugiyama is more or less the same player she was then -- a scrappy, fight-until-the-last-point baseliner who doesn't possess any one big weapon. Hingis, on the other hand, has gone on to become the #1 player in the world and collect four Grand Slam singles titles. In the early going here in Montreal, it might as well have been '96 all over again. The match opened with a rather startling four breaks in a row, both players struggling just to keep the ball in the court. Hingis finally emerged with a 5-3 lead just as I was getting back from interviewing Jana Novotna. Shortly thereafter she claimed the set, taking it 6-3 with a good serve returned into the net by Sugiyama.

  Another break for Hingis opened the second set and it looked like she was finally hitting her comfort zone. In the following game she hit an ace for 40-30 and nearly got another one down the T, only to have it ruled a fault. She argued, lost the argument, lost the next point, and angrily slammed a ball off the court surface. Two points later, though, she finally did get her game-winning ace and with it a 2-0 lead. Hingis won the next game (her seventh consecutive break of Sugiyama) with a backhand winner and Game 4 with another ace. Sugiyama was hanging in there, prevailing in enough rallies to get to 30 in many games, but Hingis was turning it up a notch when she needed to. Martina got one more break for a 5-0 lead and set up match point with an ace at 30-30. Hingis once again tried to end a game with a dramatic ace and once again had it ruled a fault, much to her dismay.

  In the end, the fans should have been thankful that would-be ace had been ruled wide, because the match point which followed was the best rally I'd witnessed in the entire tournament. It was a 30 stroke marvel that had to be seen to be believed, with Hingis doing some absolutely unreal retreiving before finally winning with a chipped backhand Ai couldn't quite track down. It was so draining that Hingis pretended to collapse at the net after shaking hands. It was a spectacular ending to an otherwise forgettable 55-minute win for the #1 seed. Since Sugiyama has a history of coming from behind and making matches close, I asked Martina if she knew she'd h
 

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