Hingis beat fourth-seeded American Jennifer Capriati, 7-5, 6-2, today in the semifinals. After a first-round bye, Hingis beat Jana Nejedly of Canada in the second round and benefited from a walkover when Zimbabwe's Cara Black withdrew due to the flu in the quarterfinals.

Hingis will play Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania on Saturday in the finals.

The eighth-seeded Dragomir beat No. 9 Kristina Brandi of the United States, 6-2, 6-3 in the semifinals. Dragomir knocked off second-seeded Sandrine Testud in the quarterfionals.

Second-seeded Nicolas Escude of France, No. 3 Patrick Rafter of Australia, fifth-seeded American Michael Chang and Martin Damm of the Cezech Republic advanced to the men's semifinals with wins today.

Hingis fell to Jelena Dokic of Australia in the first round of Wimbledon last year. At the time, Hingis was coming off an emotional French Open final loss to Steffi Graf and was in the midst of a brief separation from her coach and mother, Melanie Molitor.

Hingis since has regrouped, but was a semifinal loser to eventual champion Mary Pierce at this year's French Open. She has one grasscourt title, winning Wimbledon in 1997.

Capriati snapped a four-match losing streak last week at the DFS Classic in Birmingham, England and reached the quarterfinals before falling to eventual winner Lisa Raymond in three sets.

With the help of renowned coach Harold Solomon, Capriati last season rejuvenated a once-promising career that had been sidetracked by off-the-court problems in the mid 1990s. She won two titles in 1999 and started this season by reaching the Australian Open semifinals. However, since recently splitting with Solomon, Capriati has looked out of shape and had not played well until last week.

Escude posted a 7-5, 6-4 victory over eighth-seeded Francisco Clavet of Spain in the quarterfinals and will meet Chang in the semifinals.

Rafter beat No. 6 Karim Alami of Morocco, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 and will play Damm in the semifinals. Damm ousted Swede Magnus Gustaffson, 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Rafter won one tournament during his injury-plagued 1999 campaign, claiming his second straight Heineken Open title here. He is attempting to become the first player ever to win three crowns at this event.

Rafter's win here last year, along with a semifinal run at Wimbledon, helped lift him to the world's No. 1 ranking, but two months later he suffered a shoulder injury during the first round of the U.S. Open. He underwent arthroscopic surgery in October to repair a tear in his right shoulder.

The return to form has been slow for the two-time U.S. Open champion. After reaching the quarterfinals in his first event in February at Delray Beach, Rafter was unable to get past the third round in a tournament before this one.

Top seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia was forced to pull out of the event on Wednesday due to an acute sprain of his left ankle. Hewitt injured himself during the Stella Artois Championships last week.

The men's winner takes home $54,000 while the women's victor earns $27,000.