Hingis has her eyes set on two doubles honours
>> NEW YORK: Martina Hingis will play in the finals of both women’s doubles and mixed doubles at the US Open after winning two semi-finals on Friday.
First she teamed with Chan YungJan to beat Peng Shuai and Sania Mirza 6-4, 6-4 in the women’s doubles. They will play Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova for that title.
Then Hingis and Jamie Murray defeated women’s singles semi-finalist CoCo Vandeweghe and men’s doubles champion Horia Tecau 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) in the mixed doubles.
Murray is the older brother of twotime Wimbledon singles champion Andy Murray.
Hingis and Murray will f ace Michael Venus and Chan Hao-Ching in the mixed doubles final.
Meanwhile, Lucie Safarova blasted Czech teammates and friends Hradecka and Siniakova f or poor sportsmanship in a heated US Open women’s doubles semi-final on Friday, saying it was “sad” for tennis.
Safarova, who was playing alongside another Czech Barbora Strycova, was furious over an incident in her 6-2, 7-5 defeat.
Siniakova hit a ball which deflected off the head of her teammate.
Under the rules, the point should have gone to Safarova and Strycova but Hradecka did not acknowledge the ball had hit her.
“Win or lose you should always play f air! Wouldn’t expect that from a friend. Makes me really sad !..#sportsmanship#fairplay#sad,” tweeted Safarova.
Meanwhile former world No.1 and 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams made her first public comments since giving birth to a daughter one week ago, tweeting praise on Friday to the US Open women’s finalists.
Williams was pregnant when she won the Australian Open in January, moving within one Slam singles crown of Margaret Court’s all-time record, and revealed in April on Twitter she was having a baby and would not play again this year.
The six-time US Open champion was excited for fellow Americans and US Open finalists Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys.
“There are NO words to describe how proud and how happy I am for @Madison_Keys keys and @SloaneStephens for making the US open finals,” Williams tweeted.
“These amazing women continue to change the game and bring excellence, power, finesse and change to tennis.
“What a joy it will be to watch this — hopefully first of many finals. Let’s go ladies!”