18-Year-Old Ivanovic Defeats Hingis At Rogers Cup
Posted August 21, 2006 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
A cagey veteran was chopped down by an up-and-coming 18-year-old in the final of the $1.34 million US Rogers Cup tennis tournament on Monday.
Ana Ivanovic played the role of the fresh faced, but focused upstart, while Martina Hingis was the vastly more experienced, but heavily outgunned veteran. Ivanovic took the title in 58 minutes, earning a 6-2, 6-3 victory in a rain-delayed final. It was her second career tournament victory, but her first win in a Tier-1 event, one level below the elite grand slams.
“This is a big step for me,” said Ivanovic, who looked up to Hingis growing up.
“She’s a great player. In juniors, I watched her winning grand slam titles and now I played against her and played good tennis. Basically, now I can consider myself one of the top players and that gives me motivation to work even harder to stay at this level.”
The victory pushes her world ranking to No. 17 going into the Aug. 28-Sept. 10 U.S. Open in New York.
Hingis was impressed.
“This is another youngster whose potential is very, very high and now we’ll see how she handles it,” said Hingis. “Obviously, she’s mentally stronger and physically, she’s at the best level, 18 or 19.
“We’ll see how she can cope with that, but definitely she has skills.”
