Tennis News: Martina Hingis continued her successful comeback with a doubles victory over Athens Olympic gold medallists Li Ting and Sun Tiantian at the Australian hardcourt championships in Melbourne yesterday.
Hingis, who won her first round singles match on the Gold Coast on Monday, teamed up with France's Tatiana Golovin to beat the Chinese pair 6-1, 6-4 on centre court.
The 25-year-old Hingis, who retired in 2002 with foot and ankle injuries, is using the Gold Coast tournament and next week's Sydney International as warm-ups for the Australian Open, which begins on January 16th.
In yesterday's second round singles matches, fourth seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy beat China's Li Na 6-2, 6-2 while Spanish eighth seed Anabel Medina Garrigues beat Japan's Aiko Nakamura 6-4, 6-4.
Czech teenager Lucie Safarova, who beat double Gold Coast winner and Ai Sugiyama in the first round, needed seven match points against Slovakia's Jarmila Gajdosova before closing out the contest 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.
Hingis returns to singles action today with a second-round clash against world number 35 Klara Koukalova.
Meanwhile, Andy Murray insists he was not concerned despite being given an early scare before booking his place in the second round of the Adelaide International.
The 18-year-old had to fight back from a set down before overcoming qualifier Paolo Lorenzi (24) who was playing his first match at ATP tour level.
The Italian, who had beaten Murray's British compatriot Jamie Delgado in the preliminaries, briefly threatened to spring a surprise before the teenager from Dunblane found his form to claim a 3-6, 6-0, 6-2 victory.
Murray was just relieved to have successfully negotiated his first match of the year at Memorial Drive.
He said: "At the start of the year it's just about getting through the first few matches and getting match fitness up, trying to get your timing back and get used to winning again.
"I think I did that. I didn't panic when I went a set down - I won the second set well and then I got broken and I was two-one down in the third and I came back again.
"So I was happy with the way I fought but I wasn't too happy with the way I played."
The United States battled back from the loss of the first singles match to overcome Russia 2-1 in round-robin competition at the Hopman Cup yesterday.
The victory was the second for the United States in Group A of the mixed team tournament after they had defeated Serbia and Montenegro by the same score on Sunday.
The Netherlands kept on track to top Group B after adding a 2-1 victory over Australia to their earlier win against Argentina.
Svetlana Kuznetsova gave Russia the lead against the US by beating Lisa Raymond 6-4, 6-1 but Taylor Dent responded for the Americans, defeating Yuri Schukin 6-2, 6-0 before the pair teamed up to clinch the tie with a 6-4, 6-1 mixed doubles victory.
Third choice Dent began as an overwhelming favourite against 299th-ranked Schukin, who was the third choice for Russia after injuries to Marat Safin and Teimuraz Gabashvili.
Although the American was put under some pressure in the first game, holding off three break points, he soon took control.
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