Clijsters Marches Into Semifinals

Challenged in the first set of her Acura Classic quarterfinal match on Stadium Court, top-seeded Kim Clijsters of Belgium dug deep and went on to post an impressive 7-5, 6-2 victory over eighth-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland.

Playing before a near-capacity crowd, Clijsters and Hingis were locked in a tense duel in the first set. After exchanging service breaks to open the match, Clijsters broke Hingis in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead.

The Belgian, serving for a 4-2 lead, fell behind 15-40 but came back to fight off four break points to win a 16-point game and hold serve.

After easily holding serve, Hingis scored her second and final service break of the match when, on the third break point of the game, Clijsters hit a crosscourt backhand in the net.

With the set score tied 4-4, each player comfortably held serve to get the score to 5-5.  Despite hitting an ace, Hingis committed four unforced errors to lose serve again and give Clijsters a 6-5 lead.

Hingis put up a furious fight in her attempt to send the set into a tiebreak as she had a break point on Clijsters at ad-out.  The Belgian would not give up as she hit a crosscourt forehand winner to tie the game at deuce.
After Hingis hit a forehand service return into the net to give Clijsters set point, the set ended with Hingis netting a backhand crosscourt service return wide.

The loss of the first set seemed to take the wind out of Hingis’ sails as she was broken in the third and seventh games. With a 3-2 lead, Clijsters won 12 of the last 16 points to win the match, which took one hour and 16-minutes.

“When you play Martina, you have to win the points against her. She’s not a player who’s going to hit you off the court,” Clijsters said. “It’s up to me to be aggressive, to go for the winners. It's why you take the risk and make a few more unforced errors.”

• Clijsters advances to the semifinals where she will meet seventh-seeded Nicole Vaidisova.
• Clijsters is now 4-4 in career head-to-head meetings with Hingis. She has won the last three meetings.
• Clijsters is ranked number 2 in the world.
• Clijsters improves her 2006 match record to 35-8.
• Clijsters is making her sixth career Acura Classic appearance. She was runner-up in 2003.
• Hingis is ranked 13th in the world.
• Hingis is now 39-13 in 2006.

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