Hingis powers Hyderabad to crucial lead over Bangalore Raptors in Champions Tennis League
Martina Hingis and Mark Philippoussis of the Hyderabad Aces celebrate a victory during their Champions Tennis League tie against Bangalore Raptors at the Lal Bahadur Stadium in Hyderabad on Monday (Photo: P Surendra)
Hyderabad: Martina Hingis turned the heat on old adversary Venus Williams to hand Hyderabad Aces a crucial 17-14 games lead over Bangalore Raptors as the Champions Tennis League kicked off to a rousing reception on Monday night.
Taking advantage of a sluggish Venus, who committed a lot of unforced errors, Martina closed in on the kill to win their women’s singles 6-3 to hand the hosts advantage.
Earlier, Hyderabad’s Mark Philippoussis fought back from 2-5 to win the first match 6-5 (5-2) in a tie-break against Thomas Enqvist before Bangalore hit back to level the match 1-1 after their mixed doubles pair of Venus Williams and Feliciano Lopez defeated Martina Hingis and Mikail Youzhny 6-5 (5-1).
Mark saved his best for the last as he drew first blood for the hosts in a thrilling tie-break. Thomas served first and leveled it 1-1. Mark served his first ace of the match and held onto his next serve to go 3-1 up in the tie-breaker.
As Thomas served next, he was able to take the first point while Mark took the second and the scoreline read 4-2 in Mark’s favour. As Philippoussis served for the match he held onto his second chance and won the tie-breaker 5-2.
Earlier, Thomas started the match with good deep serves, as Mark was rusty to get off the blocks. The ‘Scud’ then turned tables on his rival to take the match into a tie-breaker.
( Source : dc )
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