The top-seeded Capriati recorded her third victory in as many career meetings with No. 4 Kim Clijsters of Belgium on Thursday (Wednesday in the United States), posting a 7-5, 3-6, 6-1 win to reach her second straight championship match at Melbourne Park.

After battling back, the third-seeded Hingis was forced to hold on for a 4-6, 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 8 Monica Seles to reach her sixth consecutive final at Melbourne Park.

The defending champion, Capriati beat Clijsters in their first meeting since last year's French Open, where the Floridian won her second Grand Slam title in as many events. In a memorable final, Capriati edged Clijsters, 12-10, in the third set.

Playing in her fifth straight Grand Slam semifinal, Capriati rolled over her teenage opponent in the final set, overpowering Clijsters in just 23 minutes.

The 25-year-old American is trying to defend a Grand Slam title for the first time. A year ago, Capriati became the lowest seed to win a major title in the Open era and ignited her fight back from personal adversity.

In October, Capriati became the ninth woman since the introduction of the computer rankings to reach the No. 1 spot.

Hingis, a former world No. 1 from Switzerland, won 11 of 13 games after dropping the opening set to move within one game of closing out the match. But the "Swiss Miss" appeared tentative and dropped her serve, allowing Seles to pull with 5-4.

"It is very hard to stay on top all the time in a match like this," Hingis said. "So I just cleared my head, tried to make her move whenever I could and waited for my chances."

Helped by just 12 unforced errors, the 21-year-old Hingis held on and won in 100 minutes. Seles committed 40 unforced errors.

"I think Martina was just more consistent throughout the match, and I made too many unforced errors at key times," Seles said.

Seles, a four-time winner here, lost for just the third time in 45 career matches at the Australian Open.

A three-time Australian Open champion from 1997-99, Hingis will look to avoid her third straight defeat in the championship match at Rod Laver Arena. On that court, she fell to Lindsay Davenport of the United States in 2000 before losing to Capriati a year ago.

In a battle of men striving to reach a first career Grand Slam final, 16th seed Thomas Johansson of Sweden will take the court Thursday against 26th seed Jiri Novak of the Czech Republic.