Hingis storms into quarter-finals; Arantxa made to toil

But Henin had made a blistering start and Hingis had been within a point of trailing 3-0 in the first set with a double break of serve.

A series of fiercely-struck forehands left Hingis floundering as Henin’s go-for-broke approach produced a succession of unforced errors.

While Hingis enjoyed an ultimately comfortable victory, fourth-seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario faced elimination in the face of a brave challenge from Zimbabwe’s Cara Black. It took the Spaniard two hours and 21 minutes to recover from 2-4 in the final set and edge through 6-2, 3-6, 6-4.

Black, the younger sister of Davis Cup brothers Wayne and Byron, matched the dogged persistence that is such a feature of Sanchez-Vicario’s game, and she used the serve-and-volley expertise learned on the grass court at her home in Harare to good effect.

Sanchez-Vicario’s cause was not helped when she took amble early in the third set which resulted in treatment for a neck sprain, but her greater experience saw her through.

In another marathon, Magdalena Maleeva took two hours and 27 minutes to overcome Belgium’s Sabine Appelmans 6-4, 5-7, 7-5.

Mauresmo, Sugiyama exit
TOKYO: Amelie Mauresmo’s gloom continued on Thursday as the French third seed fell victim to qualifier Daja Bedanova in the second round at the WTA Princess Cup tennis tournament.

The 1999 Australian Open finalist, who has yet to post a singles match win since reaching the French Open fourth round in May, crashed to a 7-5, 3-6, 3-6 loss to the 87th-ranked Czech in two hours and four minutes.

Earlier in the day, Japanese ace Ai Sugiyama, the US Open doubles champion and seventh-seed here, became the first seed to fall when she crashed to her Sydney Olympic team-mate Shinobu Asagoe 3-6, 5-7.

Sixth- seed Kristina Brandi went through, although she had to come back from one set and 3-5 down, saving two match points from 15-40 in the 11th game, to beat fellow American Corina Morariu 2-6, 7-5, 6-2.

Eighth-seed Jelena Dokic of Australia took a quarter-final place against American second seed Serena Williams when she powered her way through to a 6-4, 7-6 (7-1) victory over Lina Krasnoroutskaya of Russia.

Mauresmo suffered another disappointment later in the day in the doubles quarter-finals. She and her Australian partner Nicole Pratt watched their first-set advantage tumbled into a 6-4, 5-7, 1-6 defeat to World number one pair, Julie Halard-Decugis of France and Ai Sugiyama of Japan.

Hewitt pulls out
VIENNA: Australia’s Lleyton Hewitt became the second seed to pull out of next week’s Vienna men’s tennis tournament on Thursday, following the withdrawal of Wimbledon champion Pete Sampras, organisers said.

Hewitt was at home in Adelaide suffering from a virus, they said. Sampras, the 1998 winner, announced his withdrawal on Wednesday because of personal reasons, just days after his wedding to actress Bridgette Wilson.

The remaining seeds in Vienna include US Open winner Marat Safin, Olympic champion Yevgeny Kafelnikov, Magnus Norman and Thomas Enqvist.