NEW YORK (Ticker) -- Martina Hingis today showed why she is ranked No. 1 in the world.

Relying on her experience and playing the big points better than her opponent, Hingis defeated third-ranked Venus Williams, 6-4, 7-6 (7-2), to advance to the finals of the Chase Championships for the third time in four years.

The 19-year-old from Switzerland, the defending champion, awaits the winner of this afternoon's other semifinal between second seeded American Lindsay Davenport and No. 6 Nathalie Tauziat of France.

"I think that was one of my best matches ever," Hingis said after the one hour, 51-minute struggle. "It was great stuff. I'm really happy I came out on top."

Williams, a 19-year-old American, was the more spectacular of the two players, but mixed amongst her powerful serves and blistering forehands were untimely unforced errors and numerous missed opportunities.

After Hingis broke to go up 2-1 in the opening set, Williams had six chances to pull even, but she was unable to capitalize on any of them. Hingis survived break points in the fourth and sixth games of the set and four more in the marathon, 16-point eighth game.

It looked like Hingis might run away with the match after she broke to open the second set and Williams received treatment on her neck during the ensuing changeover. But trailing 3-1, Williams rallied to win three straight games, breaking Hingis in the fifth game with a rocket forehand return on a second serve.

Feeling the momentum swing away from her, Hingis took a restroom break during the changeover.

"We work so hard on the points that sometimes you want to get away from it and loosen up," Hingis said.

Whether physical or tactical, the move worked. Hingis held serve to even the set at 4-4 and the players stayed on serve, setting up the tiebreak.

Williams won the first point on serve, but Hingis reeled off four straight and went up 4-1 on a double fault. An overrule of a disputed line call by chair umpire Anne Lesserre Ulrich went Hingis' way, setting up match point. Hingis closed out Williams on the next point with a forehand winner up the line.

The victory evened the season series between the two at 3-3 and gave Hingis a 9-5 lifetime edge. Hingis has won all three of the meetings between the two players in New York, including victories at the U.S. Open in 1997 and 1999.

Hingis, who has won a tour-best seven titles this season, will be appearing in her 13th final of 1999 on Sunday. She has lost her last two, falling to Williams last month in Zurich, Switzerland and to Davenport last week in Philadelphia.

Hingis is 1-1 in previous Chase Championship finals. She lost to Steffi Graf in five sets in 1996 and beat Davenport in four sets last year.

Williams won six titles in 1999 and reached the finals of four other events.

Davenport, the reigning Wimbledon champion, cruised into the semifinals Friday with an easy 6-3, 6-1 win over Anke Huber of Germany. Tauziat advanced to her second Chase Championships semifinal in three years with a 6-3, 6-2 win over unseeded Dominique Van Roost of Belgium.

The 23-year-old Davenport is a two-time runner-up at the event, also losing to Gabriela Sabatini in 1994. Playing in just her second tournament since a month-long wrist injury and battling a left hamstring ailment, Davenport is seeking her seventh title of the season.

Tauziat, 32, is one of the hottest players on the WTA Tour, winning two indoor events in the last three weeks. She has won 16 of her last 19 matches after splitting her first 42 this year.

Davenport holds an 11-3 edge in the series between the two and a 4-1 advantage indoors. Two of Tauziat's victories have come on grass at Wimbledon -- in the third round in 1993 and in the quarterfinals in 1998. They have not faced each other since the quarterfinals of last year's Chase Championships, when Davenport prevailed 6-0, 6-3.

The $2 million event offers a $500,000 first prize.