Hingis, Seles Advance At Tokyo

By CBSNews.com staff CBSNews.com staff

February 3, 1999 / 8:33 PM EST / CBS Sportsline

Martina Hingis, coming off her third consecutive Australian Open victory, beat Japan's Ai Sugiyama 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Pan Pacific Open.

"Ai was very tough," said Hingis, ranked No. 2 in the world. "She was giving 100 percent, maybe 200, at the beginning. ... I was surprised the way she played. She was very fast and didn't miss anything."

After losing the first set, the Swiss star gave herself a pep talk, saying: "I want to get back to the No. 1 spot and I won the Australian Open. Then I lose here in my first round? No way! Come on! You've got to fight!"

Sugiyama, ranked No. 25, got off to a fast start with some big serves and accurate shots down the lines. In the final two sets, Hingis frustrated Sugiyama with long rallies and angled returns.

Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, the defending champion, begins play Thursday with a second-round match against fellow American Mary Joe Fernandez, a 6-1, 6-2 winner over Croatia's Iva Majoli.

Monica Seles also advanced to the quarterfinals, beating France's Sarah Pitkowski 6-1, 6-3. Seles dropped a semifinal match to Hingis in the Australian Open, her first loss ever in the tournament.

"Obviously, I had a great tournament in Australia," Seles said. "But at the same time, Martina beat me very easily (6-2, 6-4). So there is a long way to go to really play consistently against someone like Martina, Lindsay and some other players."

In a first-round match, German star Steffi Graf routed American Samantha Reeves 6-0, 6-1. Graf last played in the tournament in 1997, when she was forced to withdraw from the final against Hingis because of a knee injury.

"My knee is doing very well," the seven-time Wimbledon champion said.

In other first-round matches, South Africa's Mariaan de Swart beat Japan's Miho Saeki 6-3, 6-4, and Russia's Elena Likhovtseva defeated Ukraine's Elena Tatarkova 4-6, 6-4, 6-2.