Pierce held a 6-1, 4-2 lead over fellow Frenchwomen Sandrine Testud when their quarterfinal match was suspended for the day. It will be completed on Saturday.

Rain played havoc with today's schedule as only one of the other quarterfinal matches was started. Second seed and four-time champion Monica Seles of the United States and ninth seed Barbara Schett of Austria split two games in the opening set before the rains came.

Tonight's matches between top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland and No. 5 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain, and sixth seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa and unseeded Anne-Gaelle Sidot of France also were postponed and will be completed on Saturday.

The quarterfinaal winners will have to play a second match as the semifinals also are scheduled for Saturday, leading to the finals on Sunday.

The top seed and world No. 1, Hingis needed just over an hour to dump No. 16 Chanda Rubin of the United States, 6-3, 6-1, in the third round on Thursday. She improved to 28-5 this year on hard courts.

After needing three sets to win her second-round match, Seles barely won a first-set tiebreaker before getting past No. 15 Elena Likhovtseva of Russia, 7-6 (9-7), 6-3, on Thursday.

Pierce advanced to her third quarterfinal at this event by beating 1997 finalist Anke Huber of Germany, 6-2, 7-5, while Sanchez-Vicario downed fellow Spaniard and 12th seed Conchita Martinez, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.

Hingis dropped the first two games of the match before reeling off nine of the next 10 games to take control. She improved her season record to 48-8 as she tunes up for the U.S. Open in two weeks.

After back-to-back losses at the French Open and Wimbledon, Hingis took some time off before returning to action and winning the TIG Tennis Classic in San Diego two weeks ago. She lost in the semifinals of last week's Acura Classic in Los Angeles, but bounced back with a 6-0, 6-3 second-round win on Tuesday.

Seles has never missed a final in six appearances at this event. Her title here in 1995 was her first event since getting stabbed during a match in Hamburg, Germany in 1993.

She was sidelined for a month with a left forearm injury before returning this week. The former No. 1 player has a 27-9 record in 1999 with one title. She has won 10 of 13 matches on hard courts this season.

First prize is $150,000.