Hyderabad: Showing glimpses of the past, former World No.1 Martina Hingis served past Venus Williams to give Hyderabad Aces the lead against Bangalore Raptors in the ongoing Champions Tennis League (CTL) at the Lal Bahadur Stadium, yesterday.
With the five-set battle tied at 1-1, Hingis turned on the heat to outplay world No.18 Venus 6-3 in the high octane ladies singles game to give Hyderabad the edge.
The powerful rallies and serves between the two stars were a feast to the eyes of the spectators who thronged in large numbers to see their favourites in action.
The outcome of the result though will depend on the number of games won than the sets in question. The Aces lead the Raptors by 17 games to 14.
In the first match of the five-set game, in the Legends category, Hyderabad's Mark Phillippoussis defeated Thomas Enqvist of Bangalore 6-5 (5-2).
Enqvist dominated the game initially, but Phillippoussis fought back to win the game in style.
In the Mixed Doubles match of the tie, Bangalore's Feliciano Lopez and Venus beat Mikhail Youzhny and Hingis of Hyderabad 6-5 (5-1).