| AMELIA ISLAND, Florida (Ticker) -- Top seed Martina Hingis
of Switzerland and No. 2 Conchita Martinez of Spain will play second-round
matches on Wednesday at the $565,000 Bausch & Lomb Championships claycourt
tennis
Hingis has captured all WTA Tour Tier I tournaments and three of the
four Grand Slams but has not captured this event, which has been won by
all the other No. 1 players in the last 20 years.
Her second-round opponent will be Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascual, who
beat Sweden's Sofia Arvidsson in a first-round match on Monday.
Hingis lost in the semifinals at the Ericsson Open in Miami two weeks
ago to Venus Williams but has three titles this season and a 33-4 match
record. She and the other top 16 seeds byes out of the first round.
Martinez, the 1995 champion, hopes to snap a three-match losing streak
when she meets Italy's Sylvia Farina Elia, who defeated Australia's Nicole
Pratt in the first round on Monday.
Martinez's best stretch this season was at the beginning of the year
in Australia, when she reached the quarterfinals at Gold Coast and the
semifinals at Sydney. She lost in last year's final to Monica Seles, who
withdrew due to a continuing foot injury.
Fourth seed Amanda Coetzer of South Africa advanced to the third round
when her opponent Tatiana Panova was forced to retire Wednesday due to
dehydration. Coetzer was leading the match, 7-5, 3-0.
Fifth-seeded Mary Pierce of France will play in her first match since
falling in the quarterfinals at the Dubai Open in February. The 1998 champion
here, she withdrew from her last few tournaments with tendinitis in both
ankles.
Pierce will meet American Meilin Tu, who defeated Marissa Irvin on Monday.
Sixth-seeded Amelie Mauresmo of France, No. 7 Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario
of Spain and ninth-seeded Paola Suarez of Argentina will also play second-matches
on Wednesday.
Mauresmo takes a 10-match winning streak into the tournament after sweeping
the titles in Paris and Nice in February. She is matched up against American
Kristina Brandi, who ousted Sweden's Asa Carlson in the first round.
Sanchez-Vicario, a two-time champion fresh off winning her first title
of the year at Porto, Portugal last week, will face Pavlina Nola of Bulgaria,
who beat Ruxandra Dragomir Ilie of Romania in the first round.
Suarez will meet Anastasia Myskina of Russia, who knocked off Iva Majoli
of Croatia in the first round.
No. 14 Gala Leon Garcia of Spain was upset by Maria Emilia Salerni of
Argentina, 6-4, 6-1 in the second round and 16th-seeded Elena Likhovtseva
of Russia faces Rosanna De Los Rios of Paraguay on Wednesday.
Third seed Elena Dementieva of Russia advanced Tuesday night with a
6-4, 6-3 second-round victory over France's Nathalie Dechy.
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