Hingis, the 1998 champion, needed only 43 minutes to crush No. 31 Silvia Farina Elia of Italy in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she will face No. 14 Kim Clijsters of Belgium, who posted a 6-2, 6-2 victory over Russia's Elena Bovina.

"I was very focused," Hingis said. "There are always things you can still get better, like that first game in the second set I let down a little bit. I just came back right away, so that was good."

Clijsters and Hingis have played three times before, with Hingis winning all three matches. They met most recently in Sydney at the start of this year, with Hingis posting a 6-4, 6-4 victory.

"I'm more experienced now than I was in the beginning of the year," said Clijsters. "I'm looking forward to it. I'm going to enjoy it. She's a great player. I've got nothing to lose."

On the men's side, top seed Gustavo Kuerten of Brazil, a semifinalist here three years ago, cruised past American Cecil Mamiit, 6-2, 6-3. However, four seeds suffered first-round defeats.

No. 2 Marat Safin of Russia, with new coach Mats Wilander in tow, was ousted by Thomas Johansson of Sweden, 7-5, 7-5 and fifth-seeded Magnus Norman of Sweden fizzled out in a 4-6, 6-1, 6-1 loss to Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador.

A pair of young Americans recorded upsets. Jan-Michael Gambill dumped No. 14 Dominik Hrbaty of Slovakia, 6-4, 6-3, and Mardy Fish, 19, outlasted 15th seed and 1999 winner Mark Philippoussis of Australia, 6-4, 6-7 (2-7), 6-4.

Another 19-year-old American reached the second round as Taylor Dent posted a 6-3, 6-0 win over Wayne Ferreira of South Arica.

Hingis stretched her winning streak to 10 matches and has won 29 of her first 31 matches in 2001. She captured the Qatar Open and Dubai Open in the Middle East last month for a WTA Tour-leading three titles this season.

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 from Switzerland has reached the final in each of the five events she has played in 2001.

Kuerten begin the year with a second-round five-sets loss to Greg Rusedski at the Australian Open, but has bounced back to win 13 matches in a row. He captured claycourt titles at Buenos Aires and Acapulco and won two matches for Brazil in Davis Cup action.

"I've been playing well already a few matches ago, good streak winning right now. So I feel confidence," Kuerten said. "I hope to play a little bit more match here to, you know, just playing on clay court."

However, Kuerten proved last season he is more than a one-surface player, claiming his first hardcourt event at Indianapolis in August and securing the season-ending No. 1 ranking with his win at the Tennis Masters Cup in Lisbon.

Safin reached the fourth round at the Australian Open and the quarterfinals at Milan but snapped a four-match losing streak two weeks ago at the Dubai Tennis Championships. He went on to advance to the final before retiring with a back injury.

"(The back) is getting much better," Safin said. "At least I could serve a little bit better than Dubai. But it wasn't enough. I think I didn't practice for one week. I tried to stay relax and try to take care of my back, so that was the reason. I make some easy mistakes because not playing for one week. I was all the time under pressure. It's difficult to play against Johansson, who has a big serve and he makes very easy points. I'm a little bit disappointed that the injury is this week, which is Masters Series."

Norman fell to Francisco Clavet on Sunday in the final at Scottsdale, dropping to 0-2 in ATP championship matches this season. He lost to Lleyon Hewitt in the final at Sydney in January and dropped to 15-8 this season with Tuesday's loss.

In addition, sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt of Australia held off Albert Costa of Spain, 6-2, 5-7, 6-1; seventh seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov of Russia eliminated 1998 champion Marcelo Rios of Chile, 6-4, 7-5; and ninth-seeded Thomas Enqvist of Sweden, last year's runnerup, beat Marc Rosset of Switzerland, 7-6 (7-0), 2-6, 6-4.

Also, No. 10 Tim Henman of Britain outdueled Rainer Schuettler of Germany, 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (7-4); No. 11 Patrick Rafter of Australia dispatched Greg Rusedski of Britain, 6-3, 6-2; and No. 16 Sebastien Grosjean of France demolished Byron Black of Zimbabwe, 6-0, 6-2.

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