Kim Clijsters struggles past Martina Hingis at Acura Classic
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Aug 5, 2006 | Print | Email | Bookmark | Free Subscription
Kim Clijsters’ run on the hardcourts in America continued last night at the Acura Classic in San Diego, California. Clijsters, who is seeded No. 1 at this tournament, struggled past Martina Hingis in straight sets 7-5, 6-2.
The match started with both players having trouble holding serve, but Clijsters finally gained the advantage at 5-5 and then held to take the opening set 7-5. She then received an early break at 1-all in the second set when Hingis sprayed a forehand wide to hand Clijsters the break point. Clijsters continued to dominate and easily closed out the match 7-5, 6-2.
Neither player was at her best last night at the Acura Classic. Kim Clijsters, who had not lost a match on the American hardcourts since the quarterfinals a year ago at San Diego, was at one point so frustrated that she uncharacteristically smashed her racquet onto the court. Her game has been a little off this week and unless she is able to clean up her unforced errors, she could run into some trouble tomorrow when she takes on teenager Nicole Vaidisova in the semifinals.
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Momofan | Aug 5, 2006 | Reply
Don’t worry, Nikki V. has enough of a temper of her own to blow out to Kimmie again like she did just last week in Stanford (by the same score that Marti did today, I might add). Kimmie will be on her guard tomorrow after last week, and I really don’t see Nikki challenging her more than Hingis did today. Course, now that I’ve said this, I’ll probably have to eat my socks tomorrow as my prediction fails LOL!
Aaress | Aug 5, 2006 | Reply
Momofan,
Vaidisova’s been playing good lately, and I’d really like to see her finally breakthrough and win a big tournament. Kim’s looking a little out of it this week, and her errors last night were so uncharacteristic. She was going for too much, too soon and Martina made mincemeat out of her serve during that first set.
Vaidisova’s got the game to drive Clijsters crazy, especially as Kim has to be feeling some fatigue from playing the last two weeks straight, but even if she does pull an upset over Kim today, I’ve got a sinking feeling that Maria Sharapova would just demolish her in the final.