Can Martina Hingis play with the big girls?  That's the question that's been waiting for an answer since she announced her comeback.  The verdict after last night's loss to Kim Clijsters - well, no, not entirely.  But she sure can make them have to earn a victory. 

No more number one in the world for Hingis, but top 10 for sure and I think she'll take her share of scalps this year. 

The first article below has the match summary and the second an interesting analysis of what this means for Hingis.

From the Courier-Mail: Hingis fairytale finally ends

FOR once there wasn't a loser as the 15,000 fans stood and saluted Kim Clijsters and Martina Hingis last night.

Clijsters snared the tangible reward of a berth in the semi-finals, but Hingis scored her own major victory by proving once and for all that her comeback is the real deal.

After a tense battle of wild form swings, the battle-hardened Belgian won 6-3, 2-6, 6-4 in 1hr42min.

Hingis gave the Rod Laver Arena crowd hope of a fairytale upset when she saved two match points serving at 3-5 in the final set and forced Clijsters to serve it out.

But the Belgian snuffed out the Swiss Miss's dream by holding comfortably, looking to her camp in the stands with a mix of elation and relief.

"I was feeling very weird out there today in general. I was feeling very empty out there," said Clijsters, carrying a leg injury...

Hingis faced the press with a far more positive attitude, making it clear she was now in for the long haul after pushing the new world No. 1.

"It was great proof to myself," Hingis said. "I'm relieved, I'm happy. I think I can be proud of myself. You think I'm just going to give up now?"

"You can't just let three years pass by and think you can step out there and win everything," Hingis said.

"Considering I wanted to play doubles at each of these events, it hasn't turned out too badly."

Asked if she now felt she could compete with the top 10 stars, Hingis said: "I made the last eight. If you make the final eight you definitely have the belief.

"I think I can believe that."

Clijsters said Hingis was a better player now than three years ago. "She definitely hits the ball a lot harder than she used to," said Clijsters, who added that Hingis was much tougher to read than the routine opponents.

"She just reads it so well and plays it tactically so well. I think by getting more matches and more rhythm she's going to improve even more," Clijsters said.

Hingis started the first set uneasily and was staring at a 0-4 scoreline in a hurry.

When she finally did break through to win a game, the comeback queen raised her fist and smiled. But even then, there was an air of inevitability about a comfortable Clijsters win.

Hingis managed to find respectability with a 6-3 result in the first, but the stats were worrying.

Off her much-talked about second serve, the Swiss Miss was winning only 40 per cent of points.

Given she was only getting 50 per cent of first balls in, the weakness was glaringly exposed.

Any momentum gained late in the first set dried up when Clijsters shot out to a 2-0 lead in the second set.

All but written off, Hingis suddenly found the kind of form that had made her the darling of the tournament. Her first serve percentage shot up from a worrying 50 per cent in the first set to a more routine 67 per cent.

From The Australian: Clijsters the true big shot

THIS year's most popular summer re-run has come to an end, with Martina Hingis losing to Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open.

As Hingis packs her racquets to continue her comeback season in the US, Europe and beyond, there will be part of her content with what she has achieved.

But also, there will be a part already frustrated by the familiarity of the plot.

This was a match of shifting fortunes. The 6-3 2-6 6-4 scoreline was closer than most thought it would be and there were times when it looked as though the dream might continue for Hingis and tournament organisers.

But in the final, blunt analysis, Hingis lost for the same reasons she did before chronic injury and general disillusionment persuaded her to take a three-year break from the tour.

Quite simply, she ran into a bigger woman who could hit the ball harder, while matching her for court speed and guile.

Clijsters isn't the biggest player on tour, nor the hardest hitter of a tennis ball.

And given she has carried injury through this tournament and walked on to court yesterday with her left thigh cocooned in protective strapping, she can't even be considered among its better movers.

The Belgian has been vulnerable these past two weeks and was relieved when Hingis's last return of serve sailed long after 1hr42min on court.

Yet more times than not, it was Clijsters playing the power game and Hingis being backed, quite literally, into a corner.

While the hot sun was still overhead, it might have been a relief for Hingis to spend time in the court's shadowed reaches.

But unless Hingis is a completely changed player from the teenager who dominated this tournament and world tennis at her peak, she won't be content to stay there for long.

For Hingis, such arguments are as boring as a cow bell. She knows she can't match players like Clijsters for power and has been frank in her assessments of her own shortcomings.

When she gets tired or tight, she drops her forehand short and when she misses her first serve, her second is an incitement to violence.

Against Clijsters, she had no way to win cheap points nor gain easy service games. On the biggest of points -- namely break points to begin the first and third sets -- her second serve was so gun shy that it took refuge on her own side of the net.

Yet for all her disadvantages in size and strength, there remains an uncanny competitor in Hingis. She smiles to herself at times when other players might cry and has a pragmatism which allows her to bend and shape her game according to need.

These qualities are enough to beat most women and against Clijsters, who will be officially the world's best player once the new WTA rankings are released next week, they were enough to force a Grand Slam quarter-final into a deciding set.