| BERLIN (TICKER) -- Defending champion and world No. 1
Martina Hingis of Switzerland avoided the upset bug at the $1.08 million
Germany Open today with a third-round win over 12th-seeded Sylvia Talaja
of Croatia.
After six seeded players were upset on Wednesday, only one was today,
excluding Hingis, who is seeking her WTA Tour-leading fifth title of the
season.
Hingis struggled early against Talaja before posting a 7-6 (7-3), 6-3
victory, setting up a quarterfinal match with fifth seed Sandrine Testud
of France.
Fresh off winning the Betty Barclay Cup on clay at Hamburg, Hingis moved
a step closer to defending one of her seven 1999 titles. She defeated No.
4 Julie Halard-Decugis in last year's final.
Hingis, 19, has one more title than American Lindsay Davenport for the
Tour lead. The two shared the State Farm Tennis Classic crown in Arizona
after the championship was rained out.
The 22-year-old Talaja, competing in Berlin for the first time, is ranked
23rd in the world.
Halard-Decugis was the only seed to be upset today, falling at the hands
of No. 10 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa, 6-2, 6-2. Coetzer will play eight
seed Anke Huber of Germany in the quarters.
Huber, 25, stumbled by 20-year-old Magui Serna of Spain, 6-2, 6-7 (6-8),
6-4 to advance to the quarters here for the first time since 1996. She
had a semifinal appearance here in 1994.
Also today, third-seeded Conchita Martinez of Spain cruised into the
quarterfinals with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Paolo Suarez of Argentina. Martinez
next will face unseeded Gala Leon Garcia.
Leon Garcia upset a seeded player for the second time this week, bouncing
No. 15 Chanda Rubin of the United States, 6-1, 6-7 (5-7), 6-3. She also
defeated seventh-seeded Russian Anna Kournikova.
Testud, one of five seeds remaining, earned the right to play Hingis
with a 7-6 (6-0), 6-2 victory over Denisa Chladkova of the Czech Republic.
The fourth quarterfinal match will pit South African Joanette Kruger
against Russian Elena Dementieva. Kruger bounced German Bianka Lamade,
6-0, 6-3, and Dementieva pounded Czech Kveta Hrdlickov, 6-2, 6-1.
First prize at the 93rd German Open is $166,900. Only the U.S. Open
(113), Wimbledon (106) and the Canadian Open (100) have been held longer
among women's tournaments.
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