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Crowd eggs Hingis on Top seed handles fan favorite Testud in three sets
PARIS (Reuters) -- Top seed Martina Hingis overcame problems caused by her opponent Sandrine Testud and the Paris crowd on Sunday to move into the French Open quarterfinals with a 6-1, 2-6, 6-2 victory. The fourth-round match was disrupted when an egg was thrown on to the court during a changeover with Hingis 5-0 ahead in the first set, but the world No. 1 had been prepared for a hostile reception against the local favorite. "At first I didn't know what had happened," Hingis said. "It was like a little bomb. At least it wasn't thrown at me and I felt good about that. "It's never happened to me before but I saw it in Australia when Anna [Kournikova] was playing doubles. I just kept going and tried to play my game." It is the second time one of Hingis' matches in the tournament had witnessed a security breach. At the end of her first-round victory over Spain's Gala Leon Garcia, a spectator jumped on to the court and started serving just as Hingis had thrown the final ball into the crowd. The disruption on Sunday and a chilly reception from the Parisian crowd did not unduly distract Hingis, who overcame a lapse in the second set, to claim her 15th straight win over the 17th-seeded Testud. Hingis had looked poised to make quick work of the Frenchwoman, needing just six minutes to roar into a 3-0 lead in the opening set. But the 29-year-old Testud, urged on by most of the 15,000 fans packed into the Centre Court, stormed back in the second, forcing Hingis to drop her first set of the tournament and leveling the match. Hingis, desperate to win the French Open to complete her Grand Slam collection, was not to be denied, though, breaking Testud at the start of the third set and regaining control. "Once I went up 2-0 in the third set, I started to feel confident," said Hingis, who will meet unseeded Italian Francesca Schiavone in the last eight. "I just lost concentration during the second set for a minute and lost a little bit of momentum. But in the third I regrouped again and it was all going my way."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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