Serena, Hingis advance in State Farm

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) -- Serena Williams, playing for the first time since injuring an ankle in a semifinal in Sydney early January, overwhelmed Russian qualifier Alina Jidkova 6-3, 6-3 Wednesday night in the second round of the State Farm Women's Tennis Classic.

"On a scale of 10, I'd give myself about a two," said third-seeded Williams of her less-than-inspiring performance. "I didn't play good at all. I missed my serve, I didn't hit any big ones, I made several errors."

She also had 10 aces, including a 115 mph rocket on set point in the first set.

In the second set, Jidkova broke Williams in the sixth game, forging a 3-3 tie, and led 40-15 in the seventh. But Williams broke back with accurate groundstrokes as Jidkova hit two returns into the net and lost the game on a backhand that went wide.

Williams broke again in the ninth game, winning with a forehand pass after Jidkova rushed to the net to get a drop shot.

"I'd never seen her play before today," Williams said. "I'm not the type of person to game-plan. Obviously, if I'm playing Venus or [Jennifer] Capriati or Lindsay Davenport, I know how they play, so I can prepare."

Earlier, No. 2 Martina Hingis of Switzerland beat Stephanie Foretz of France 6-2, 6-4 to reach the quarterfinals against No. 8 Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic, a 6-2, 6-3 victor over Croata's Silvija Talaja.

Australia's Nicole Pratt reached her third quarterfinal this year and the ninth of career by defeating Ai Sugiyama of Japan 6-2, 6-3, and will play Williams on Friday.

Hingis made it to the Scottsdale final in 2000 before her championship match with Davenport was rained out and was satisfied with her play in Scottsdale for the first time since then.

"I'm happy about this round," said Hingis, 15-1 in singles this year. "I was very focused, very concentrated. I served pretty good and my backhand was working pretty well."

Hingis held the WTA's No. 1 ranking for 209 weeks between March 1997 and October 2001. That month, she tore ligaments in her right ankle during a semifinal in Filderstadt and had season-ending surgery.

She started well this year, winning her 39th and 40th career titles at Sydney and Tokyo and reaching a sixth straight Australian Open final before a three-set loss to Jennifer Capriati. But she skipped title defenses in Doha and Dubai, and a points shortage left her ranked fourth -- her lowest since 1996 -- last week.

She dropped to fifth this week as Venus Williams became the 10th woman to hold No. 1 since computer rankings began in 1975.

"It's still early in the season for me to drop to No. 5," Hingis said. "I can't believe it, but it's only a few points. If I do well at this tournament, maybe I can get back to 3, which is at this point [where] I belong."

Hingis prevailed in a 63-minute match, holding service in both sets and breaking Foretz in the third and seventh games of the first and the fifth game of the second.

Facing double match point in the 10th game of the second set, Foretz got back to 40-30 with an overhand smash. But on the next match point, Hingis won when Foretz put a cross-court backhand into the net.

 

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