Women Out of Their Depth?

Who thought that Marcelo Rios would be so prescient?

After all, Rios is a Chilean tennis player, not an oracle. Less than a day after Rios smacked women’s tennis as lacking depth, he sounded reasonable instead of rash.

The evidence mounted early today, accumulated and, by the time third-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland had barely sweated through a 6-1, 6-0 victory against No. 15 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, the defense disappeared.

Game, set and match, Rios. At least for today.

In other fourth-round matches, second-seeded Venus Williams needed 48 minutes to dismiss No. 13 Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria, 6-0, 6-3. Hingis took the first set and led, 1-0, in the second within half an hour, ultimately finishing in 44 minutes. Unheralded Adriana Serra Zanetti of Italy took the longest, beating Martina Sucha of Slovakia, 6-1, 7-5, in 61 minutes.

Monica Seles advanced after just 33 minutes but that was because her Spanish opponent, Anabel Medina Garrigues, retired after injuring her right knee in yet another scary-looking crash on the sticky Rebound Ace surface.

Down, 2-4, she attempted to play after receiving treatment but lasted only two more points and left the court in tears, saying, “Why?” Medina Garrigues was taken to a hospital for additional testing. No immediate report on her injury was available, according to the WTA.

Seles looked rattled, hesitant to try to hit a winner, when her opponent tried to resume competing for the final two points. She will meet Williams in the quarterfinals, and was asked about Rios’ recent remarks. “I’m not even going to comment on that,” Seles said. “I’m not going to even give him an answer back on that.”

Williams responded to Rios by saying: “I enjoy the women’s game. We’re here because we deserve it.... We just don’t bring our best games to Slams, we bring it to every event.”

Said Hingis: “I think if [Rios] played with me, he’d change his mind.”

One of Rios’ colleagues, Stefan Koubek of Austria, supported him. Koubek, who defeated qualifier Fernando Gonzalez of Chile, 7-5, 6-1, 6-7 (3), 6-2, reached the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam for the first time in his career.

“Well, if you look at the draw, I mean there’s the men fighting for two, three hours every match,” Koubek said. “And then there’s the women playing 40 minutes. That says everything, and I think Rios was not that wrong.”

Koubek joined Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden in the quarterfinals. Bjorkman produced the shock result today, dispatching No. 6 Tim Henman of Great Britain, 6-2, 7-6 (6), 6-4. Henman had been the highest-seeded player remaining and the British bandwagon was starting to become standing room only.

Said Henman: “I certainly had high expectations, why wouldn’t I? I did well in Adelaide and backed it up so far in the first three rounds. I certainly don’t have any right to win the match. I’ve got to go out there and prove it and I didn’t do that today.”

Bjorkman, 29, had not reached a Grand Slam quarterfinal since the U.S. Open in 1998, and the Swede has found singles success somewhat elusive despite superb doubles results.

He has lost to Henman just twice in seven matches, though, managing to beat him at his own serve-and-volley game, showing excellent court coverage and exquisite touch.

He made two highlight-type shots in the second-set tiebreaker. Trailing, 5-6, Bjorkman flicked a crosscourt passing shot off a Henman volley. At 6-6, he retrieved a Henman overhead and smacked it back for a winner off his own overhead.

“Well, I should have a chance to get on CNN with that play of the day,” he said. “I probably haven’t done that for many years.”