Tennis Tour Tidbits

Written by: Bob Larson Tennis on 7th August 2013

Southern California Open tennis tournament

Tennis Tour Tidbits

epa03811730 Martina Hingis (R) from Switzerland talks with her doubles partner Daniela Hantuchova from Slovakia (L) during their quarter-final doubles match against Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears from the USA at the Southern California Open tennis tournament in Carlsbad, California, USA, 02 August 2013. Kops-Jones and Spears won the match. EPA/MICHAEL NELSON |

Martina Hingis continues to grow in confidence. After she and her partner Daniela Hantuchova defeated Petra Kvitova and Angelique Kerber in Toronto, she said she’s getting used to the pace of WTA play again. “I think it helped me mentally really a lot, and one is No. 7 and the other 8 in the world, that I can rally with them pretty much no problem from the baseline,” she said. “In the beginning I was a little bit not like overwhelmed but like the feelings like to be playing crosscourt, and I think now it has to get normal, like after six years to play players like of today.” . . . Venus Williams returned to the tour for the first time since Roland Garros in a 0-6, 6-4, 6-2 loss to Kirsten Flipkens in Toronto, but once again she says she’s not fully healthy yet. She is worried she will re-injure her chronically sore back so she’s taking speed off one of her big weapons, her serve. “ I just really started serving a lot more in the last week, so I’m not really, 100% on the serve yet,” she said. “So, to me, it was better not to take too many risks and just do something I felt more comfortable with. This week I will definitely be practicing my serve a lot more and getting more confident in it and more comfortable with serving out there.” Williams will play Cincinnati next week but will not try and play New Haven. She also said she has no plans to play doubles. “I have to be really easy on my back now,” she said. “I can’t force it. Doubles would be awesome, but it’s not an option right now. Hopefully I will just be able to obviously play at the Open.” . . . The US men have struggled to remain relevant since the 2012 retirement of Andy Roddick. After Vasek Pospisil took down John Isner at the Rogers Cup, the US is now guaranteed to have no men ranked in the top 20 for the first time when the new rankings come out of Monday. . . Sam Querrey, who withdrew from Montreal due to a personal issue (which is said to be family problems), will return next week in Cincinnati. . . It was a big day for Canada at Rogers Cup in Montreal and Toronto. At the ATP tournament in Montreal, Canadian Filip Peliwo, Frank Dancevic, Vasek Pospisil and Milos Raonic all pulled off victories. With Jesse Levine of Ottawa’s win on Monday, it put five Canadians into the second round, which is said to be the first time in 40 years that has occurred. Two Canadian women got through too, Genie Bouchard and Sharon Fichman. “It’s amazing,” Dancevic said. ” . . . Former world No. 1 and WTA co-founder and first president Billie Jean King will be inducted into the Rogers Cup Hall of Fame on Wednesday evening.