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No repeat Hingis avoids first-round upset at Wimbledon
Posted: Tuesday June 27, 2000 01:49 AM
LONDON (Reuters) -- Top ranked Martina Hingis avoided a repeat of her 1999 Wimbledon humiliation when she beat little-known Spaniard Angeles Montolio 6-1, 6-2 in 54 minutes on Monday. The easy victory got the 1997 champion back on track on the All England Club grass after her upset 12 months ago when she lost in the first round to Australian qualifier Jelena Dokic. Montolio, playing only the second Wimbledon match of her career, looked completely outclassed until the final game when she produced her best tennis of the match, saving seven match points. Top seed Hingis first served for a place in the second round with 45 minutes on the clock. But Montolio, 5-2 down after dropping her serve twice, prolonged the action for another nine minutes as she battled to stay in the match. The Court One game went to deuce seven times as Hingis struggled with her first serve and with her concentration, which was clearly disrupted by a foot fault called on match point five. Montolio, ranked 42nd, hit a service return out to give Hingis her eighth match point and then put a backhand long to concede victory. "I just couldn't finish if off," said Hingis, 19. "She played so well on those match points. Maybe I didn't serve so well and she always came up with an amazing winner." Hingis, 19, said last year's defeat, which came after she had argued with her mother who has been the guiding light of her career, had humbled her. "I think I learned a nice lesson here which was positive. Sometimes you have to experience things. People go to school and do worse things than I did last year." Hingis patched things up with her mother, Melanie Molitor, after Wimbledon and this year has reached the final of the Australian Open and the semifinals of the French. "A few weeks after Wimbledon, I won the tournament at San Diego and I kept on going in the right direction," she said. Hingis should find it easy to keep things going well. She faces China's Yi Jing-Qian, ranked 78th, in the second round.
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.
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