Hingis Easily Moves Ahead

When Rita Grande of Italy finally won a game, avoiding the prospect of a fourth-round shutout today at the Australian Open, she earned a round of applause after losing seven consecutive games.

One person wasn’t happy.

Martina Hingis of Switzerland tossed her racket. Never mind the score was 6-0, 1-1. Some players go through the motions against lesser players but not Hingis. Winning 6-0, 6-0 doesn’t bore her.

“Well, because I kept lobbing her and she kept hitting overheads,” Hingis said. “I was like, ‘OK, one more and I kill myself.’ A lot of times she was slowing down things. It was all me--whatever I did to the ball, it was me missing or making the points, most of it.

“I knew I had to be patient and just every now and then I was getting a little bit frustrated about that.”

Hours later, someone else wasn’t happy. Serena Williams heard the words Martina Hingis, quarterfinals and Sydney and it was clear she was not going to be making jokes about shopping or watching horror moves.

This all adds up to one thing. The top-seeded Hingis and sixth-seeded Williams will be colliding again, this time in the quarterfinals. That prospect has created tense conditions, more so for Williams since she lost to Hingis recently in the quarterfinals at Sydney.

“I’ve prepared for it already,” Williams said. “If I haven’t prepared for it, then there’s nothing I can do.”

The fourth-round matches didn’t offer any revelations. Hingis, who has lost 12 games in three matches, defeated Grande, 6-0, 6-3, in 46 minutes. Williams stayed on the court a bit longer, 67 minutes, beating 17-year-old Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic, 6-2, 6-2, hitting eight aces and 29 winners.

Tenth-seeded Amanda Coetzer of South Africa moved on with little trouble, winning, 6-1, 6-4, against Paola Suarez of Argentina, in 65 minutes.

On Sunday, fourth-seeded Monica Seles stopped Justine Henin’s 13-match winning streak, dispatching the 18-year-old Belgian, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, in the fourth round. Seles made a determined comeback as she was down one set and a service break in the second.

Today, the biggest news featured a bizarre incident on Court 1 during a third-round doubles match between Anna Kournikova-Barbara Schett and Shinobu Asagoe-Yuka Yoshida. Near the end of the first set, a 15-year-old boy from Melbourne tossed an orange flare on the court, landing in front of Kournikova as she prepared to return serve.

Play was delayed for 12 minutes while part of the court was repainted. Six teen-age boys were taken aside after the flare was thrown and the offender was “officially cautioned” for discharging a dangerous missile, according to Melbourne police.

“It was strange,” Schett said. “I just saw the face, Asagoe opened her eyes big. I was like, ‘What’s going on? Why is she making a face like that?’ Then I saw the thing coming into the court. Everything was orange. It was a bit strange.”

Said Kournikova: “I didn’t see. I was hitting the ball. Suddenly something just dropped in front of me. That’s it. I just walked away.”

Kournikova and Schett said they weren’t scared, though their opponents appeared unnerved. Incidentally, hours after the incident, it was learned today that Kournikova was fined $2,000 for receiving coaching during her third-round match.

And her opponent? None other than her doubles partner, Schett.