Hingis is undone by Clijsters again

Kim Clijsters had another quarterfinal win over Martina Hingis despite a rash of unforced errors, and moved into the Australian Open semifinals against top-seeded Maria Sharapova.

The fourth-seeded Clijsters won, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3, today, breaking the sixth-seeded Hingis’ serve in the last game and ending the match with a forehand passing shot.

“I wasn’t really seeing the ball; the only thing you can do is to work for every point to try to turn things around,” said Clijsters, who made 62 unforced errors and dropped serve five times. “I knew it was going to be a tough one. It could have been my last match here, so I’m glad to have one more.”

Clijsters ended Hingis’ remarkable comeback run here in the quarterfinals last year, when the Swiss star was returning from three years off the circuit because of injuries.

Clijsters has made the semifinals here on every trip since 2002 -- missing the 2005 tournament because of injuries -- but has never won the title. The 23-year-old Belgian says she will retire at the end of this season.

Sharapova advanced to the semifinals for the third straight year with a 7-6 (5), 7-5 win over Anna Chakvetadze, another 19-year-old Russian.

Sharapova, assured of gaining the No. 1 ranking next month, had trouble on her serve, double-faulting on break point three times.

But she had the only point on serve in the tiebreaker, where the last eight points finished on unforced errors.

The U.S. Open champion was broken when serving for the match at 5-3 and wasted a match point with a backhand error in the next game.

Sharapova got two more match points in the 12th game and finished it off in 2 hours 14 minutes when Chakvetadze netted a forehand.

“It was very difficult, I didn’t feel like we had a lot of easy rallies,” Sharapova said. “I felt I had to work on every point.”

Sharapova had 32 winners but six double faults and 41 unforced errors, winning only three more points than Chakvetadze.

Sharapova, who looks toward her father, Yuri, in the stands after almost every point, got a warning for getting coaching from him as she served at 0-30 with the score tied at 2-2 in the second set. She then ran off four straight points to take the game.

“I was a little up and down, a bit scratchy,” Sharapova said. “I am glad I got through, but next time will even be tougher.”

Meanwhile, Roger Federer, despite dropping his serve four times, set up a semifinal with sixth-seeded Andy Roddick after a 6-3, 7-6 (2), 7-5 victory over seventh-seeded Tommy Robredo.

“The break of serves, they’re due to the wind I assume,” Federer said. “I had to kind of change my game around a little bit. I think my attacking style really worked out well -- I’m really happy to have come through.”

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Three weeks after pulling out of the Australian Open, Justine Henin-Hardenne announced on her website that she was separating from her husband, Yves, and plans to return to the court Feb. 5-11 in Paris.