Hingis needed a little over an hour tonight to rout third-seeded Mary Pierce of France, 6-4, 6-3, and advance to the final at the $535,000 State Farm Tennis Classic.

Known as the "Swiss Miss," Hingis advanced to her third final of the season and will face second-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the United States on Sunday.

Hingis has lost her last four encounters with Davenport, all in straight sets. The biggest of those defeats came in the final of the Australian Open in January. Davenport is 10-8 all-time against Hingis.

Pierce had lost just six games and spent a total of one hour, 42 minutes on the court in her first two wins before running into Hingis.

The 19-year-old Hingis set the tone late in first set, winning the final two games. The duo again was even at 3-3 in the second set before Hingis took the final three games to move on. The match lasted 72 minutes.

Hingis beat Pierce for the fourth straight time while improving to 9-5 lifetime against her.

This is Hingis' first tournament since defeating Sandrine Testud of France in last month's Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo.

Earlier today, Davenport easily advanced to her third straight final in 2000 by needing just 55 minutes to crush recently engaged and sixth-seeded Russian Anna Kournikova, 6-2, 6-2. She will be seeking her 28th career singles title on Sunday.

Davenport also set an early tone as she broke Kournikova in the first game of the match. She broke again in the seventh game for a 5-2 advantage, and served out the set.

A frustrated Kournikova again lost her serve in the first game of the second set. The Russian showed signs of a rally when she broke Davenport in the fourth game, but Davenport quickly brushed it off by breaking Kournikova at love for a 3-2 lead and broke again for a 5-2 advantage and a chance to serve out the match.

Kournikova managed to save one match point in the eighth game but Davenport came right back with an ace. A netted forehand by Kournikova on the next point allowed Davenport to improve to 13-1 this season on hard courts, including 3-0 against the Soviet siren.

The 23-year-old Davenport has turned her game up a notch in each match she has played this week. She rallied from a set down to defeat Jennifer Capriati in the second round before ending Monica Seles' season-opening six-match winning streak on Friday with a 6-4, 6-4 quarterfinal victory.

Kournikova fell to 2-5 lifetime against Davenport and still is searching for that elusive first career singles title. She made major off-the-court news earlier this week when it was announced she became engaged to NHL superstar Pavel Bure.

First prize at this hardcourt event is $87,000.