One week before she vies for her fourth straight Australian Open title, the 19-year-old Hingis began tuning up for the first Grand Slam event of the year by thrashing Olga Barabanschikova of Belarus, 6-0, 6-2, in a 34-minute second-round match. Hingis lost to second seed Lindsay Davenport, 6-4, 6-3, in last year's final.

Fresh off winning his hometown tournament for the second time in three years, Hewitt posted an efficient 6-4, 6-4 win over Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean.

One day after the elimination of men's top seed Gustavo Kuerten on Monday, second seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador and fifth seed Karol Kucera of Slovakia avoided a similar fate but fourth seed Cedric Pioline of France was not so fortunate.

Lapentti, a semifinalist at last year's Australian Open, got past Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, 3-6, 6-3, 6-3; Kucera beat Martin Damm of the Czech Republic, 7-6 (7-3), 6-1; and Pioline was ousted by last year's runner-up Alex Corretja of Spain, 6-4, 6-4. Corretja is looking to snap a title drought of over a year.

For the women, American teenager Alexandra Stevenson notched her best career win by defeating fourth seed Barbara Schett of Austria, 2-6, 6-3, 6-3. Before slaying the eighth-ranked Schett, Stevenson's previous best was her defeat of No. 14 Dominique Van Roost in Birmingham in 1999.

Two other seeds were stretched to a tie-breaker before subduing their opening-round opponents. Seventh seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, who teamed with Wayne Ferreira to win the Hopman Cup last week, beat American Lisa Raymond, 7-6 (7-1), 6-0.

Eighth seed Anna Kournikova of Russia, coming off a quarterfinal showing last week in Gold Coast, Australia, advanced past Sabine Applemans of Belgium, 7-6 (7-4), 6-2.

Kournikova will take on 1993 champion Jennifer Capriati in the second round. Capriati, who went through a career resurgence last season which saw her vault to No. 23 in the WTA rankings, bounced Sandrine Testud of France, 6-3, 6-1. Capriati, also a runner-up in 1997, is coming off a victory over Hingis in the final of an exhibition event last week in Hong Kong.

Three of the four finalists at last week's tournaments were in action as Gold Coast runner-up Conchita Martinez overcame Anne Kremer of Luxembourg, the winner of the ASB Bank Classic in Auckland, New Zealand, 5-7, 7-5, 6-2. Silvija Talaja of Croatia, who defeated Martinez for her first career singles title, squeezed past Russian qualifier Nadejda Petrova, 7-6 (7-0), 3-6, 6-4.

First prize for the men is $46,000. The women's champion pockets $75,000.