Second-seeded Hingis beat pesky Dominque Van Roost of Belgium 6-2, 6-4 Thursday to book a spot in the semifinals of the $520,000 T.I.G. Classic tennis tournament.

``It just feels great being in the semis again,'' said Hingis, who took a five-week break after losing the French Open finals to Steffi Graf and a shocking opening-round loss to Austrian teen-ager Jalena Dokic at the Wimbledon Championships last month.

``I don't know what I'm going to do but I'm practicing and doing better. Also the confidence and the belief that you can do it again is growing match by match.''

Hingis can regain the world No. 1 ranking if she gets through to the final and Lindsay Davenport is beaten in the final four. If both reach the final, the winner would be the top player.

``You always have slumps at some stage in your career,'' said Hingis who has won four titles this year, including a fifth Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. ``I don't think it's the first or last time this has happened to anybody.

``I'm not saying I'm over the hill, I just wanted more because I didn't do that well and I wanted to do better. I felt like I missed playing and missed being one of the best players in the world. I'm used to that.''

Hingis believes she has matured in her hiatus.

``I think I've grown the last few weeks,'' said Hingis, who won this event in 1997. ``It's not that I'm playing great tennis but you can still improve. In practice I don't always have that confidence or cockiness that I used to. My body has changed, I have to work more and do it. I think I'm hungrier not just for now but also for the future.''

A stronger and fitter Hingis courtesy of a weight-training program won both her matches in straight sets. Besides an unrelenting ground game and effective net play, her serve was humming against the 15th-ranked Van Roost during the baseline slugfest.

``I played well from the beginning and served very well today,'' said Hingis, who had just two aces but won 73 percent of her serves while breaking service three times. ``I found my rhythm and served very well. I believed in it and always won my serve easily. That was a big help in winning the match.''

Earlier in the day, qualifier Anke Huber of Germany used a late pair of service breaks to rally past unseeded Barbara Schett of Austria 5-7, 6-4, 6-3.

``I think from the baseline I played pretty well,'' said Huber, who has tumbled from a career-high fourth ranking in 1996 to a current 29, following Achilles tendon surgery last year. ''It was one of my best matches, the best match here definitely. We are very good friends. It's always tough to play against a friend.''

Huber's victory, after an upset of eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat of France, earned the 29-year-old German a quarterfinal matchup against Davenport, the defending champion.

``She's just playing very very well and I have nothing to lose,'' said Huber who has a 2-7 career mark against the world No. 1. ``I can just go in there and play my game. But I have to play very accurately, I have to serve much better than today. We will see.''

In the final match of the day, unseeded Sandrine Testud of France won 11 of the last 12 points to upset sixth-seeded and three-time runnerup Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain 6-2 7-5.

``I got off to a good start winning the first set but I was expecting Arantxa to come back, so I had to be very careful,'' said the 14th-ranked Testud, who has split six career matches against the Spaniard. ``It was tough. Even though she made a lot of mistakes, I had to keep working but I stayed aggressive. That was the difference.''