Martina Hingis returns to Wimbledon after her first-round defeat to Virginia Ruano Pascual back in 2001.
A strong field of players makes up the first ten seeds at this year’s edition of Wimbledon starting June 26 through July 9, 2006. Frenchwoman Amelie Mauresmo, the reigning Australian Open winner, is seeded at number one, while US Open winner, Belgian Kim Clijsters, is seeded second. French Open winner, Belgian Justine Henin-Hardenne is seeded third followed by 2004 Champion, Russian Maria Sharapova at fourth. Another Russian, 2004 US Open winner Svetlana Kuznetsova is seeded fifth. Defending champion, American Venus Williams is seeded sixth. Russian Elena Dementieva, Swiss Patty Schnyder, Russian Anastasia Myskina, 2004 French Open winner, and Czech Nicole Vaidisova are seeded seventh, eighth, ninth, and tenth respectively.
Hingis, seeded twelfth, will face Olga Savchuk from Ukraine, who is ranked 103rd in the world. Hingis should have no problem advancing into the second round.
Potential opponent in the second round is Italian Tathiana Garbin, ranked 63rd in the world. Hingis has 3-0 career head-to-head wins against her. In the third round, Hingis will likely play against Japanese Ai Sugiyama who is seeded eighteenth. Recall that Sugiyama’s only win against Hingis was at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. Hingis has a comfortable 6-1 career head-to-head wins over Sugiyama. A potential duel of Swiss players will be in the offing should Hingis and Patty Schnyder win all their matches leading into the fourth round. Hingis, though, has a 2-1 lead in their career head-to-head wins. Should Hingis prevail, her possibly daunting challenge would be how to beat Henin-Hardenne in the quarterfinals. Though Hingis leads in career head-to-head wins, 2-1, Henin-Hardenne won their latest match earlier this year at the Sydney International tournament.
