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Cut to the Chase Hingis, Kournikova easily advance to quarterfinals
NEW YORK (AP) -- It took playing Jennifer Capriati for Anna Kournikova to finally win a match at Madison Square Garden. Known as much for her magazine covers as her tennis, the seventh-seeded Kournikova won the final four games of the match Tuesday night to beat Capriati 6-4, 6-4 and advance to the quarterfinals of the $2 million Chase Championships. It was her first victory in three trips to the season-ending tournament. In the night's first match, Martina Hingis breezed through her first-round match 6-2, 6-3, sending Julie Halard-Decugis into retirement as a singles player. Earlier, Amanda Coetzer enjoyed a rare victory in an arena that has brought her nothing but trouble, routing eighth-seeded Chanda Rubin 6-2, 6-1. "I stop everything," Halard-Decugis said. "This is the last match of my career." Kournikova has beaten Capriati in three of the four career meetings, the only loss coming earlier this fall in Zurich, Switzerland. "I was mentally prepared," the Russian with the long blonde braid said. "I had beaten Jennifer before and knew how to beat her." Capriati was back in the Garden after a long hiatus. The last of her three trips to the Championships was in 1992, when she reached the quarterfinals. But, after spending time away from tennis, Capriati fought her way back to the top 16 players and the Garden. "When I walked in, the memories just came back," Capriati said of the Garden, which is staging the Championships for the final time. Next year the tournament moves to Hamburg, Germany. "I had just kind of forgotten what it was like," she said. "It was good to be in there again." She probably would like to forget her last Garden match. Capriati double-faulted nine times, many coming at crucial points in the match. "Some things didn't go my way," Capriati said. "A couple close calls, a couple close lines. I wish I would have maybe just stayed around a little bit longer." Instead, it was Kournikova, still seeking her first pro tournament title, who came up with the big shots this time around. And after falling behind 2-4 in the second set, she won the next four games to grab a spot in the quarterfinals where she will face No. 4 Conchita Martinez.
Hingis is ranked No. 1 in the world in singles; Halard-Decugis in doubles. It was Hingis that put on a clinic, thoroughly dominating their match throughout. "I was surprised myself how well I served today," Hingis said. "I'm just enjoying myself out there." Hingis won 60 points to just 36 for her French opponent. But the 20-year-old Swiss right-hander, who hasn't won a major tournament since the Australian Open in January of 1999, won every important point in the match. "I couldn't do anything on her serve," Halard-Decugis said. "She wasn't making any mistakes. And she knows my game very well." Hingis lost her serve just once, in the third game of the match. But she broke right back, then held to go up 4-1. Twenty-four minutes after they began, Hingis was up a set. It took another 28 minutes before she had a spot in the quarterfinals of the elite 16-player event. In a rare display of sportsmanship in the sixth game of the second set, a drive by Hingis was called long. Halard-Decugis, however, waved off the call, saying the ball hit the line, and the two replayed the point. Hingis won the point, but Halard-Decugis won the game. With more than 2,000 students cheering every point in the morning match, Coetzer gained just her second victory on the blue carpet in her eighth trip to the Garden and her first since her Championships debut in 1993. It was only her third win in nine matches against Rubin. "It was nice to know what it feels like to win here," Coetzer said. Rubin's left knee was heavily taped, and it appeared to hamper her movement. After losing the first three games of the second set, she had the tape removed and replaced it with a bandage just below her knee. It may have improved her mobility, but it had no effect on Coetzer, who won in 54 minutes. Rubin had 28 unforced errors to just five for the South African. "The only time I noticed it was on the serve," Coetzer said of Rubin's injury. "She had difficulty putting weight on that knee and I broke her a lot, and that really helped me." This week's champion will earn $500,000, with the other finalist earning $250,000.
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