Hingis Earns Her Perseverance Pay

And now, time for a collective breath, so fans and players can regain some sense of equilibrium at the French Open before the roller coaster takes off again.

Unlike a chaotic, upset-driven Sunday, proceedings were fairly tame Monday. A limited schedule grew even lighter when Alberto Martin of Spain quit after playing only six games against Julien Benneteau of France in the fourth round because of a back injury.

Instead, it was a day of much smaller moments.

The opening game of the third set between Shahar Peer and 12th-seeded Martina Hingis of Switzerland on Court 1 took 14 minutes. It lasted five deuces and ended when Peer netted a backhand on break point.

Hingis went on to prevent Peer from carving out a slice of Israeli tennis history. It came down to one set Monday, the two having split sets on Sunday before darkness intervened, and Hingis defeated the 19-year-old, 6-3, 2-6, 6-3. Peer had been trying to become the first Israeli woman to reach the final eight at a Grand Slam event.

“Martina was playing unbelievable today,” Peer said. “Usually when you play against the very good girls, like [Anastasia] Myskina and [Elena] Dementieva, they hit hard the balls. But Martina, she’s really changing the rhythm the whole time.”

Hingis will play No. 2 Kim Clijsters of Belgium today in the quarterfinals, a rematch of their Australian Open quarterfinal in January. Clijsters won in three sets, and Hingis seemed to be on empty, at the end of a long stretch of tournaments since returning to the tour after a three-year absence.

“But now I had quick matches until yesterday and today,” said Hingis, who pulled out of her scheduled mixed doubles match later Monday. “I was able to save a lot of energy. Now I think also my confidence has raised since January so that’s probably the biggest factor.”

Another moment was created by a side-spinning drop shot from the magic wand known as Rafael Nadal’s tennis racket. The defending champion broke Lleyton Hewitt’s serve in the ninth game of the third set with an especially cruel drop shot, which hit the line and curved away, toward the doubles alley.

“It sort of caught half the line, as well, sort of kicked sideways,” Hewitt said.

As if Nadal needed any help. He served out the set at love and went on to defeat Hewitt, 6-2, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2, in the fourth round in 3 hours 17 minutes, extending his clay-court streak to 57 consecutive victories. It also marked the first time he has beaten Hewitt in four matches.

“Hewitt is someone, I mean, you let him grab a finger and he takes the arm,” Nadal said.

Hewitt acquitted himself nicely, considering he hasn’t played much on clay the last two years because of various injuries. Clay may not be his best surface but his tour longevity certainly equips him to evaluate Nadal.

“His movement on clay is exceptional. It’s second to none, that I’ve seen,” Hewitt said. “He makes you play so many more balls. Normally, you’d have winners. On clay, he can sort of get enough on it to make you play a tough volley.”

Every Nadal match seems to be an event. He needed medical attention when a piece of banana became lodged in his throat during his third-round marathon against Paul-Henri Mathieu.

A Spanish journalist asked Nadal if he’d had any bananas during the Hewitt match.

“Yes, I did,” he said. “Come on, I swallowed ... I got one stuck once, but I’m not going to stop eating bananas because of that.”

One of Hewitt’s serves ricocheted and smacked a ball boy in the nose. Nadal noticed that the youngster was bleeding and asked for the umpire’s help.

“I looked back to see how he was feeling,” Nadal said. “I saw that his nose was bleeding. I asked the umpire to come and have a look, do something about it. Something had to be done about it.”

The other two completed matches yielded victories by No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia and teenager Novak Djokovic of Serbia.

Ljubicic defeated Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo of Spain, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, 6-2, and Djokovic beat Gael Monfils of France, 7-6 (5), 7-6 (5), 6-3.

Monfils, who had won three consecutive five-set matches and defeated No. 8-seeded James Blake a day earlier, came into the interview room wearing the jersey of British soccer power Arsenal.

Djokovic one-upped him by wearing a French national soccer jersey during his media session.

**

At a glance

Monday at the French Open:

* Men’s fourth round: No. 2 Rafael Nadal def. No. 14 Lleyton Hewitt; No. 4 Ivan Ljubicic def. Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo; Novak Djokovic def. No. 25 Gael Monfils; Julien Benneteau won when Alberto Martin retired.

* Women’s fourth round: No. 12 Martina Hingis def. No. 31 Shahar Peer.

* Today’s quarterfinals: No. 1 Roger Federer vs. No. 12 Mario Ancic; No. 3 David Nalbandian vs. No. 6 Nikolay Davydenko; No. 2 Kim Clijsters vs. Hingis; No. 5 Justine Henin-Hardenne vs. No. 13 Anna-Lena Groenefeld; No. 8 Svetlana Kuznetsova vs. No. 14 Dinara Safina; No. 11 Venus Williams vs. No. 16 Nicole Vaidisova.