Top seed Martina Hingis recovered from a slow start to beat Thailand's Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3 6-2 and book a place in the semi-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo today. Hingis dropped two of her first three service games and only discovered her touch after she was rattled by two close line calls when serving at 3-3 in the first set.
The Swiss world number four responded with three of her seven aces and began to increase the tempo of the match from the baseline. Hingis came to the net more in the second set and raced to a 5-1 lead before Tanasugarn held serve to take the match past the hour mark.
It proved just a temporary delay, however, as Hingis forced her 26th-ranked opponent into a backhand error on her first match point to wrap up the quarter-final in 64 minutes.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
