Hingis Continues Comeback Friday at La Costa

 International Tennis Hall of Fame member Martina Hingis will play the second match of her comeback Friday at the $795,707 Southern California Open women's tournament at La Costa Resort and Spa.

Hingis, who is from Switzerland, and Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, will face the third-seeded American duo of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in a quarterfinal doubles match.

Hingis teamed with Hantuchova for a 6-1, 6-1 victory over Julia Goerges of Germany and Darija Jurak of Croatia in a first-round match Wednesday, her first on the Women's Tennis Association tour in six years.

The 32-year-old Hingis said she "always" had a comeback "in the back of my head."

"But now having been back so much closer to it -- helping Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and being closer to the game, closer to the matches, mostly the doubles, I felt like I should try it again," Hingis said before Wednesday's match.

Hingis ruled out a comeback in singles.

"It's a completely different world," Hingis said. "Even World Team Tennis now, it's brutal, it's only one set, but still the next day you wake up and you have to put so much more effort into it.

"Playing tournaments is the easy part -- it's the grind behind it that's tough, the things behind the scenes that people don't see, the six-to- eight hours of training and the older you get, the more rehab you have to do."

In quarterfinal singles play tonight, top-seeded Victoria Azarenka of Belarus will face Urszula Radwanska of Poland, who upset sixth-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia Thursday.

"This was a huge step for me because she was No. 1 in the past and I was playing her for the first time," Radwanska said after her 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory, which included winning four of the final five games after the third set was tied, 2-2.. "I knew I had to fight for every point."

Radwanska's older sister Agnieszka, who is seeded second, will face fifth-seeded Australian Samantha Stosur in an afternoon match. Agnieszka Radwanska defeated Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia, 6-3, 6-3, Thursday.

Play is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m. with a match between third-seeded Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic and Virginie Razzano of France, who upset eighth-seeded Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain, 6-1, 6-4, Thursday.

The second match will pit fourth-seeded Roberta Vinci of Italy against seventh-seeded Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, who defeated Coco Vandeweghe, the last American remaining in the singles draw, 7-6 (5), 6-3, Thursday.

–City News Service