MELBOURNE, Australia -- Martina Hingis looked like she'd never been away.
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Playing Tuesday on the center court where she won three of her five Grand Slam titles before retiring for three years, the 25-year-old Swiss star was right at home in the first major of her comeback effort, routing 30th-seeded Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open.
Hingis' victory was all the more impressive in that she had so little trouble with Zvonareva, who became increasingly irritated with everything from Hingis' winners to disputed line calls, repeatedly spiking her racket and smashing balls in anger.
Some had questioned Hingis' fitness in warmup tournaments, but she moved well and looked sharp, confident and relaxed. She finished with 17 winners and only 11 unforced errors.
"I just came out here the other day. I could already feel the atmosphere coming from the previous years," Hingis said. "You don't know how good it feels. This surface, this stadium has been so good for me."
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| No. 3 Lleyton Hewitt rallies to beat Robin Vik in five sets. (Getty Images) |
Third-seeded Lleyton Hewitt survived a scare, rallying again and again to beat the Czech Republic's Robin Vik 6-4, 2-6, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 in 3 hours, 45 minutes.
On the women's side, No. 2 Kim Clijsters advanced 6-3, 6-0, winning the last 11 games after dropping serve twice against South Korea's Cho Yoon-jeong. She showed signs of being bothered by a left hip strain that forced her out of the Sydney International last week.
Third-seeded Amelie Mauresmo, winner of the season-ending WTA Championship in November, struggled at times in a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over China's Sun Tiantian, a doubles gold medalist at the Athens Olympics.
Fifth-seeded Mary Pierce, the 1995 Australian Open champion and a finalist at the French and U.S. Opens last year, breezed past local wild-card entry Nicole Pratt 6-1, 6-1 in 52 minutes.
Hewitt, who lost last year's final to Marat Safin, appeared to be headed to an early exit in the tournament that he most desperately wants to win.
He looked dispirited and was making mistake after mistake as he fell behind in sets 2-1 and twice found himself down a break in the fourth.
Feeding off the vocal crowd, Hewitt got better as the match wore on and finally found a way to oust the 25-year-old Vik, who jumped 362 places in the rankings last year to No. 58 but was playing in only his fourth Grand Slam match and first at Melbourne Park.
