Hingis’ Victory Not Much of a Warmup

Martina Hingis of Switzerland won the women’s title at the Heineken Trophy tournament Saturday at Den Bosch, Netherlands, when Ruxandra Dragomir withdrew because of a toe injury while trailing, 6-2, 3-0.

Hingis earned $27,000 but played only two completed matches in her warmup for Wimbledon after a first-round bye and a quarterfinal walkover.

Dragomir won the first two games before rain interrupted play. After the restart, Hingis won nine consecutive games with the eight-seeded Romanian moving around the court with increasing difficulty.

The first set lasted only 23 minutes. Nine minutes into the second set, the match was over.

“I’m in pain,” Dragomir said, apologizing to the center court crowd after pulling out. “I don’t want to take the risk of finishing this match and not being able to play Wimbledon.”

Rain halted the men’s semifinals, and both will be completed today before the finals.

Patrick Rafter of Australia took a 5-2 lead in his first set against Czech Martin Damm, and fifth-seeded Michael Chang and Nicolas Escude reached 2-2 before the rain stopped play.

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Julie Halard-Decugis of France will go into Wimbledon with her confidence soaring after beating Dominique Van Roost of Belgium, 7-6 (4), 6-4, to win the Eastbourne Grasscourt Championship at Eastbourne, England.

It was Halard-Decugis’ first title since winning at Birmingham a year ago, also on grass.

The match lasted nearly 4 1/2 hours because of rain.

The fifth-seeded Halard-Decugis took a 2-1 lead when she broke with a double-handed backhand volley. But with both players struggling to hold serve, Van Roost tied it at 3-3 when a crosscourt forehand forced an error.

Halard-Decugis regained the lead to serve for the set at 5-4, but although Van Roost eventually forced a tiebreaker, Halard-Decugis won the final four points.

The second set also was fairly even.

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Sebastien Grosjean, proving he could be a threat at Wimbledon, won England’s Nottingham Open by beating Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 7-6 (7), 6-3.

The fourth-seeded Grosjean reached the third round at Wimbledon last year.

Play was stopped for about 10 minutes at the start of the fourth game in the first set with Grosjean complaining about the slick surface. The Frenchman took a 3-1 lead when play resumed.

Black broke back in the sixth game, then had a 3-0 lead in the tiebreaker but let it slip away.

Black broke Grosjean in the third game of the second set and led, 2-1. That was the first of four consecutive breaks.

Eventually Grosjean took the initiative, losing only one point as he rallied from 3-2 down.