Hingis won nine straight games before Hrdlickova could hold serve in the 10th game.

``She has just come from playing very well in the Linz semifinals,'' Hingis said of Hrdlickova. ``So I was under pressure. I wanted to make it even better.''

She closed out the match in just 40 minutes -- the shortest match at the tournament so far -- with a crowd-pleasing forehand volley.

In the quarterfinals, Hingis will face Sydney Olympic silver medalist Elena Dementieva of Russia, seeded seventh, who struggled past Silvia Farina-Elia of Italy 2-6, 6-4, 6-4 in a tough match that lasted just over two hours.

In first-round action, No. 8 Barbara Schett of Austria beat Elena Likhovtsva of Russia 6-4, 6-1. Both players held their serve until the ninth game of the first set when Shett broke the Russian at love to begin a run of six consecutive games. She rallied from 15-40 on her serve in the final game to close out the match in 59 minutes.

In another women's match Wednesday, Russia's Tatiana Panova, who upset sixth-seeded Julie Halard-Decugis in the first round, reached the quarterfinals by eliminating Paola Suarez of Argentina 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.

In men's play, sixth-seeded Max Mirnyi of Belarus had 13 aces in a 7-6 (8), 6-1 victory over Kristian Pless of Denmark and Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden ousted Tuomas Ketola of Finland 6-2, 7-5.

The winner of the women's event will get $166,000, while the men's champion will receive $137,000.