Martina Hingis ensured her return to the top of the women's tennis rankings on Saturday with a 6-3 6-2 win over local favourite Anke Huber that put her in the final of the $535,000 Hamburg Cup. Hingis, whose control of the match was never seriously threatened despite losing two service games to love, will replace Lindsay Davenport as world number one when the new rankings are compiled on Monday. The Swiss, who will face either Spain's Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario or South African Amanda Coetzer in Sunday's final, was tactically superior throughout the one-hour match.
A sequence of exquisite drop shot winners helped her take the first set. Huber, whose scorching forehand drives posed the only serious threat to Hingis, lost her serve in the opening game of the second and, although boosted by a partisan crowd of about 7,000, she was unable to mount a challenge. The German, who had beaten Hingis only once in 10 meetings, gave her fans hope by breaking back to love in the next game, but after taking the third game against Huber's serve, her opponent was in control.
Meanwhile in the semi-final's of the $525,000 Munich Open men's tennis tournament on Tommy Haas (Germany) beat Thomas Enqvist (Sweden) 7-6 (7-5) 1-6 6-4, and Franco Squillari (Argentina) beat Max Mirnyi (Belarus) 6-2 6-4.
