The world number one took just 45 minutes on Melbourne Park's center court to defeat former U.S. and French Open champion Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario 6-1, 6-1 in the quarterfinals of the year's first Grand Slam tournament.

The speed of that victory can only help when Hingis meets former Wimbledon champion Conchita Martinez in Thursday's semifinals.

Tenth seed Martinez took two hours and 35 minutes to come out on top in a baseline duel with Russia's Elena Likhovtseva, the surprise fourth-round winner over U.S. Open champion Serena Williams.

Martinez, who lost to Hingis in the final here two years ago, took advantage of her experience and greater stroke range to see off a fierce challenge from the Russian 16th seed 6-3, 4-6, 9-7.

But the 27-year-old admitted that the tournament was taking its toll on her.

"I was a little bit tired today," admitted Martinez. "So it was really tough to play so long."

Hingis looked as fresh as an Alpine daisy after five matches on her favorite surface and predicted that Martinez would be just as tired for Thursday's semifinal.

"Both of the Spaniards, I always love to play them," she said.

After a couple of years marked by major upsets, especially in the men's side of the draw, this year's Open has gone almost entirely to script.

World number one Andre Agassi and number three Pete Sampras will meet in the first men's semifinal on Thursday night -- a match that is being seen as a "final before the final".

Number two seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the defending champion, and number four Nicolas Kiefer of Germany were heavily favored to meet in the other semifinal.

Kafelnikov was to meet Moroccan Younes El Aynaoui and Kiefer was to face Swedish 12th seed Magnus Norman later on Wednesday.

The other women's semifinal pits world number two Lindsay Davenport against comeback queen Jennifer Capriati, both playing near the top of their form.

But neither looks quite as untouchable as Hingis, the 18-year-old who has won three consecutive singles and doubles titles at Melbourne Park. Wednesday's victory took her winning streak in the singles here to 26 matches.

Against Sanchez-Vicario, the 28-year-old who upset sixth seed Barbara Schett in the previous round, Hingis showed no mercy, giving up just 26 points in the entire match.

"I didn't miss almost anything," she said. "It was like it could go on forever."

The previous semifinal almost did go on forever, as Martinez painstakingly wore down doubles specialist Likhovtseva.

Their clash was the only one of the four women's quarterfinals that turned into a true contest, with each woman pressing the other on serve and battling out long rallies.

The 24-year-old Russian tried to assert control from the net when not pinned to the baseline and used deft volleys to fend off two match points when she was down 5-6 in the final set.

But in the end Martinez's strength and Grand Slam experience paid off, leaving her just 24 hours to prepare for her showdown with Hingis.

"She's not a player that's going to run you off the court," she said of Hingis. "But mentally she's very smart out there."