Martina Hingis made a stunning return to Grand Slam tennis on Tuesday, beating Russia's 30th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-2 in the first round of the Australian Open.
The former world number one raced to a surprisingly one-sided victory against her opponent in 65 minutes to reach the second round against Finn Emma Laine.
Hingis showed no sign of nerves in her first match back on the Melbourne Park centre court since 2002, the year she played the last of her six straight Australian Open finals.
"It just feels great to be back here. I love coming back here. This stadium has been so great to me," Hingis told media afterwards.
Hingis opened up a 3-0 lead when she broke Zvonareva's serve for the first of four times in the match and was never seriously challenged.
She held each of her own service games, normally her weakest link, and her groundstrokes were sharp and penetrating though still lacking the power of today's big hitters.
"I just had to keep calm out there and focus on my game and my strategy," she explained. "I'm probably more eager to win now that when I was a 17-year-old."
TRIGGERED DECLINE
Hingis won her first Australian Open in 1997 aged 16 years and three months to become the youngest Grand Slam champion of the 20th century.
The "Swiss Miss", as she was affectionately known throughout her reign at the top, also won Wimbledon and the U.S. Open in 1997 as well as the 1998 and 1999 Australian Opens.
But the advent of more powerful players, particularly the Williams sisters Serena and Venus, triggered her decline and she never won another grand slam title.
She did reach the Australian Open final in 2000, 2001 and 2002 but lost each time and her last defeat accelerated her decision to retire later that year as she squandered four match points in a three-set loss to Jennifer Capriati played in scorching heat.
Plagued with chronic foot and ankle injuries, Hingis swapped her racket for the television microphone but the lure of playing again proved too much and she made her comeback to professional tennis earlier this month.
Her confidence was immediately put to the test when she lost in the semi-finals of the Australian hardcourt championships at the Gold Coast then the first round of the Sydney International to eventual champion Justine Henin-Hardenne but she would have silenced some of her doubters with her performance against Zvonareva.
"It just feels so great to be back here. I can't say in words what it feels like to win in the first round," she said.
