Hingis, the top seed, continued to march toward her first title at Roland Garros by disposing of Italy's Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-0, in 54 minutes.

The player Hingis was named after, Martina Navratilova, will make her first French Open appearance since 1994 as she competes in her second tournament since coming out of retirement last week.

A two-time singles champion and seven-time doubles winner at the French Open, Navratilova will team with South Africa's Mariaan de Swardt to face Sabine Appelmans of Belgium and Rita Grande of Italy in a first-round encounter.

Third seed Monica Seles of the United States continued to look impressive as she vies for her fourth French Open title. She needed only 49 minutes to eliminate Rita Kuti Kis of Hungary, 6-1, 6-2, and has lost only eight games in her first three matches.

It was a mixed day for seeded Frenchwomen as two advanced and two were knocked out.

Sixth seed Mary Pierce has been dominant in her first three matches. Today the 1994 finalist stormed past countrywoman Virginie Razzano, 6-4, 6-0, and has lost a total of 10 games in the tournament.

No. 13 Amelie Mauresmo of France set up a fourth-round clash with Seles by crushing Kveta Hrdlickova of the Czech Republic, 6-1, 6-0, in 39 minutes. Mauresmo lost to Seles in the final at Rome two weeks ago in a French Open tuneup event.

However, Chanda Rubin of the United States upended seventh seed Nathalie Tauziat, 6-4, 7-6 (7-3) and Asa Carlsson of Sweden outdueled 10th seed Sandrine Testud, 4-6, 6-3, 7-5.

One day after the elimination of men's defending champion Andre Agassi, 1996 winner Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia received a scare before winning his third straight match.

After struggling through five-set matches in the first two rounds, Kafelnikov fought off Frenchman Sebastien Grosjean, 6-3, 6-1, 5-7, 6-4, to advance to the round of 16.

Two former champions at Roland Garros will square off later today when fifth seed and 1997 winner Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil battles Michael Chang of the United States, whose only career Grand Slam title came here in 1989. Chang is the only American left in the men's draw.

In other third-round action, 10th seed and 1998 runner-up Alex Corretja of Spain posted a 4-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory over former Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek of the Netherlands, and No. 16 Juan Carlos Ferrero of Spain advanced when Mariano Puerta of Argentina retired in the second set with a pulled hamstring. Ferrero was leading, 6-2, 3-2.

Later today, No. 11 Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador faces Wayne Ferreira of South Africa, and No. 13 Tim Henman of Britain meets Fernando Vicente of Spain.

Unseeded Mark Philippoussis of Australia, who knocked off second seed Pete Sampras in the first round, advanced to the round of 16 ar Roland Garros for only the second time by defeating Hicham Arazi of Morocco, 6-2, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3. Philippoussis will battle Ferrero for a berth in the quarterfinals.

Hampered by blisters on his big right toe, Agassi fell apart late in the second set and suffered a 6-2, 5-7, 1-6, 0-6 loss to Karol Kucera of Slovakia on Thursday.

After reaching four straight Grand Slam finals and winning three of them, Agassi suffered his earliest exit from a Grand Slam since a fourth-round loss at last year's Australian Open.