FLUSHING, New York (Ticker) -- Three former champions, three third-round victories with varying degrees of difficulty.

Top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland, No. 6 Monica Seles and ninth seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario of Spain -- former champions all -- each advanced to the fourth round of the U.S. Open Tennis Championships early today.

Hingis, the 1997 champion and the runner-up here each of the last two years, rolled past outclassed Italian Tathiana Garbin, 6-1, 6-0, in just 37 minutes. Seles, who won back-to-back U.S. Open titles in 1991 and 1992, was pushed to three sets by fellow American Chanda Rubin, but prevailed 6-3, 4-6, 6-4. Sanchez-Vicario, the 1994 champion, took control of her match with American qualifier Allison Bradshaw late in the first set and cruised to a 7-6 (7-2), 6-0 victory.

Third seed Venus Williams, a pre-tournament favorite who is looking to join the list of U.S. Open champions, will try to continue her march to a second straight Grand Slam title when she plays fellow American Meghann Shaughnessy this evening.

Hingis, seeking her first major title since the 1999 Australian Open, easily advanced to the Round of 16 where she will meet 11th seed Sandrine Testud of France. Testud recorded an equally impressive 6-0, 6-1 victory over Kristie Boogert of the Netherlands in 41 minutes today.

Seles, a former world No. 1 player, won consecutive games at love to go up 5-3 in the decisive set and closed out the match with a trademark crosscourt winner on her first match point.

By winning, Seles did her part to set up a fourth-round meeting with 15th seed Jennifer Capriati for the second straight year.

Capriati, who made her first Grand Slam semifinal in nine years at this year's Australian Open, plays Adriana Gersi of the Czech Republic this afternoon. She lost to Seles in last year's Round of 16 and the two players -- who staged a classic semifinal battle here in 1991 -- would meet again in the fourth round this year should Capriati win today.

Sanchez-Vicario trailed 6-5 in the opening set, but Bradshaw lost momentum when her more experienced opponent forced the tiebreaker. The victory propelled Sanchez-Vicario into the fourth round where she will meet eighth seed Nathalie Tauziat of France, a player she has dominated throughout her career.

Tauziat, a 6-3, 6-2 winner over Janet Lee of Taiwan today, is winless in 11 career meetings with Sanchez-Vicario.

Williams earned her first major title earlier this summer at Wimbledon and has not lost since, winning her next three tournaments and 21 consecutive matches overall. A win tonight would give her the longest winning streak on the WTA Tour this season (she's currently tied with Lindsay Davenport) and move her one step closer to her second U.S. Open final.

Next up for Williams, or Shaughnessy, would be the winner of this afternoon's match between No. 13 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa and Spaniard Magui Serna.

Williams lost to Hingis in the 1997 final, a loss her younger sister, Serena, avenged with a straight-sets victory over Hingis in last year's final.

Serena Williams, seeded fifth, advanced to the third round with a victory over Nadejda Petrova of Russia Thursday night.

With four-time champion Pete Sampras getting an extra day's rest before his third-round match and top seed and defending champion Andre Agassi exiting at the hands of Frenchman Arnaud Clement Thursday, the men's second-round spotlight is on a host of seeded European players and former runners-up.

No. 3 Magnus Norman of Sweden, the highest seeded player left in the men's draw, goes for his ATP Tour-leading 57th singles victory of the year when he faces French qualifier Cyril Saulnier. Norman won his fourth title of the year last week at the Hamlet Cup on Long Island.

Eighth seed Alex Corretja of Spain and No. 14 Nicolas Kiefer of Germany advanced to the third round in straight sets today. Corretja defeated Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 6-3, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3, while Kiefer routed Sweden's Jonas Bjorkman, 6-1, 6-4, 6-3.

In other matches involving seeded men today, No. 6 Marat Safin of Russia faces 35-year-old Italian Gianluca Pozzi, the oldest player in the men's draw, 1993 finalist Cedric Pioline of France, the 10th seed, plays 1997 runner-up Greg Rusedski of Britain, and 12th-seeded Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero goes against Argentina's Hernan Gumy.

Tonight, hard-serving Australian Mark Philippoussis, the 15th seed, faces up-and-coming American Jan-Michael Gambill. Philippoussis made the final here in 1998, losing to countryman Patrick Rafter.

Todd Martin and Michael Chang, both headed to Sydney to represent the United States in the upcoming Olympics, square off this afternoon in a second-round match. Chang, a finalist here in 1996, holds a 5-1 advantage in the head-to-head series with Martin, who lost to Agassi in last year's final.

Agassi was stunned by Clement, 6-3, 6-2, 6-4, Thursday afternoon, leaving the tournament without either of the top two men's seeds entering the third round for the first time since the Open era began in 1968. No. 2 Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, the reigning French Open champion, was knocked off by Australian qualifier Wayne Arturs on Tuesday.

With Rafter, a two-time winner, also ousted in the first round, Sampras is the only former champion left in the men's draw. He'll face Agustin Calleri of Argentina in the third round Saturday.