It might as well have been 12 years ago.
With her nose in the air, a smile on her face and a confident bounce in her step, Martina Hingis still knows how to push Venus Williams' buttons.
It was just a WorldTeam Tennis match at Kastles Stadium in downtown Washington. But Hingis, three years removed from serious tennis competition following a two-year suspension for cocaine, still has the attitude that allowed her to compete with bigger, stronger, faster players.
In Wednesday's battle of Williams' gifts vs. Hingis' guile, it took all of Williams' shots to emerge in a tiebreaker in women's singles 5-4 as she helped the Washington Kastles to a 25-15 victory over the New York Buzz.
Before the match, Hingis refused to call her appearance in WTT a comeback.
"No, I did it once in 2005. I was really confident. I felt like I still had it in me," said Hingis, 29. "I had a great comeback. But now, five years down the road, it's a lot different."
But on Wednesday night, she looked like the same Hingis, albeit with some rust. She started slowly in both women's doubles, in which she and Sarah Borwell trailed 4-0, and her singles match, in which she trailed 2-0. But Hingis warmed to the task in both.
Coming off a quarterfinal appearance at Wimbledon, Williams, 30, is still a force in women's tennis and showed it as she powered the Kastles to a 5-3 women's doubles victory, pairing with Rennae Stubbs.
Williams, promoting her book "Come to Win," was still the star of the night as she led the Kastles to victory in three of the five matches in which she participated. Combining with Leander Paes in the mixed doubles, she helped the Kastles finish the night in style with a 5-3 win.