Top seed Martina Hingis of Switzerland began her march toward a third straight singles title by defeating Kveta Hrdlickova of the Czech Republic, 7-5, 6-0.

Fresh off winning her second title of the year, second-seeded American Lindsay Davenport opened defense of her crown here with a convincing 6-2, 6-1 win over Australia's Nicole Pratt.

No. 3 Venus Williams showed no ill effects from a knee injury suffered at Nice, France last month as she dumped Sarah Pitkowski of France, 6-0, 6-1.

Two-time finalist Conchita Martinez of Spain failed to reach the third round as Elena Bovina of Russia upended the fifth seed, 6-4, 6-4.

Fourth-seeded American Monica Seles encounters Tathiana Garbin of Italy on Friday night in another second-round matchup.

Hingis, the 1998 champion, swept the Qatar Open and Dubai Open in the Middle East last month for a WTA Tour-leading three titles overall this season.

"It was very distracting," said Hingis on her first experience in the Middle East. "I didn't play my best tennis, but I still came out with two victories. Now I slowly have to get into my game again."

In January, Hingis defeated Davenport to win the title at Sydney and lost to Jennifer Capriati in the Australian Open final before falling to Davenport in the final at Tokyo. The 20-year-old has reached the final in each of the five tournaments she has played in 2001.

On Sunday, Davenport won the State Farm Classic at Scottsdale, Arizona for her 32nd career title. The victory moved Davenport within 1,250 points of Hingis for the top spot in the WTA Tour rankings, and she could move even closer to the top spot by successfully defending her title.

"It's been a very solid, consistent year," Davenport said. "Coming off two titles in a row gives me a lot of confidence to try to keep the ball going and try to win here again."

Last year, Davenport defeated Hingis in a three-set final and also took the title in 1997. She is trying to become the first three-time champion in the 13-year history of the tournament.

Williams began 2001 by reaching the Australian Open semifinals before suffering a humiliating 6-1, 6-0 loss to Hingis. She reached the semifinals at Nice before suffering the knee injury.

Seles, the 1992 champion, has been impressive in her two warmup events for Indian Wells. She captured the IGA U.S. Indoors event in Oklahoma before reaching the semifinals at Scottsdale.

In other seeded play, No. 11 Anke Huber of Germany goes against American Sandra Cacic; No. 13 Sandrine Testud of France dispatched Angeles Montolio of Spain, 6-1, 6-3; No. 14 Kim Clijsters of Belgium dumped Sylvia Plischke of Austria, 6-2, 6-3; and No. 17 Justine Henin of Belgium, a winner of two titles this season, dismissed Barbara Rittner of Germany, 6-3, 6-4.

The men's portion of the event begins Monday with Spain's Alex Corretja defending his title.

This $4.95 million event offers a first prize of $330,000 for the women's champion and $400,000 for the men's winner.