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Belly dancing: Hingis reconsiders the angles as Mirza rolls on

Plus: Krajicek, Bartoli, Kirilenko

By Matthew Cronin, TennisReporters.net

Mal Taam/MALTphoto

The once mighty Martina Hingis is ejected in the first round.

FROM THE EAST WEST BANK CLASSIC IN LA – The tennis world is turning so ever slightly. When Sania Mirza comes into a match against Martina Hingis as the favorite and then acts like the favorite in closing moments and prevails 6-2, 2-6, 6-4, it's time to reconsider some common wisdom, like that on a great day Hingis can still school most of the up-and-comers.

She can't unless she's 100 percent healthy and with a ton of matches under her belt. She may never be totally fit again and, as a result, might not be able to play the full schedule she desires. She's not as quick as she was in January, let alone last year. So for all of her guile, she's not going to catch up to Mirza's blowtorch forehand when she's out of position.

As long as Mirza maintained her cool, kept her legs moving and didn't play stupidly, she was going to win the match, which wasn't as close as the scores appear. She was in total control when she wasn't worried about who she was facing.

"I don't know how she hits that forehand with such angles," Hingis said of Mirza's third-set performance, when Sania launched one low, skimming, blinding forehand from behind her hips that landed on the lines after another. "Maybe it's because Indians have such flexible wrists. Maybe she does belly dancing."

Hingis didn't mean that maliciously (she actually did the belly dance motion with her fingers while smiling) and actually asked Mirza after match how she managed such angles. Sania said that she zoned on a few of the forehand and would have made them maybe three of out of 100 times. But when's she's not dragging her feet around like she did last Friday when she blown out by Maria Sharapova, she has an incredible conversion rate with that shot.

Mirza's coach, Gabriel Urpi, is in the house this week and has told her that being tired is mostly mental and that she needs to learn how to push through the pain if she's going to become a champion

"To beat one of the quickest players on the tour and to have to dig deep to do it, that feels great," said Mirza. "It's your frame of mind. "It tells me that I can do it again."

Hingis may now pull out Toronto as she says she's been second-guessing her decision to come back in San Diego. Her sore back is bothering her a little again, not too much, but enough to send up a red flag.

"When I saw what Amelie Mauresmo did [pull out of Toronto and New Haven], I thought, maybe I came back too fast, too," said Hingis.

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