Hingis safely protected her No. 1 ranking on Wednesday with a 6-3, 6-1 rout of seventh-seeded Monica Seles of the United States. She is 19-2 this season, with an 11-match winning streak. Hingis won her lone title of the year at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo in early February.

No. 2 Lindsay Davenport advanced to her sixth consecutive WTA Tour final Tuesday night with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 victory over unheralded teenager Elena Dementieva of Russia. Davenport was to have met Hingis in the final of the State Farm Tennis Classic at Scottsdale, Arizona in the WTA Tour's previous event but the match was rained out.

At Arizona, Hingis defeated Pierce, her doubles partner, in the semifinals to improve to 9-5 lifetime against the Frenchwoman.

Pierce, appearing in her first semifinal at Indian Wells, ousted defending champion and third seed Serena Williams of the United States in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. The win will lift her to No. 4 in the world when the new rankings are released on Sunday.

The 24-year-old Pierce is looking to reach her first final since capturing the Generali Ladies Open at Linz, Austria in October. She has not beaten Hingis since San Diego 1998, dropping six straight matches to the Swiss teenager.

On the men's side, second seed and two-time champion Pete Sampras of the United States takes on No. 10 Thomas Enqvist of Sweden in the quarterfinals.

Sampras struggled for the second straight day but got past qualifier Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 4-6, 6-3, 6-2, in the fourth round on Thursday. A two-time champion, Sampras is 9-1 this season and 22-9 lifetime at this event.

The 28-year-old Sampras' only loss in 2000 came to eventual winner Andre Agassi in the Australian Open semifinals, but he has been hampered with hip and back injuries since. The back injury occurred at last week's Franklin Templeton Tennis Classic in Scottsdale, Arizona, which forced him out of the tournament.

Enqvist, who turned 26 on Monday, advanced to his second career quarterfinal at this event by defeating Mariano Zabaleta of Argentina, 6-4, 7-5, Thursday. The Swede also reached the round of eight here in 1995. However, he is 1-9 lifetime against Sampras.

In other quarterfinal action, sixth seed Magnus Norman of Sweden plays Alex Corretja of Spain, who is seeking his first title in over a year.

Eighth seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador, taking part in his fourth ATP Tour quarterfinal of the season, goes against Hicham Arazi of Morocco, and 12th seed Mark Philippoussis of Australia faces Sjeng Schalken of the Netherlands.

First prize for the men's champion is $400,000 and the women's winner pockets $330,000.