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Heat wave Hingis, S. Williams closer to quarterfinal showdown
Updated: Saturday January 20, 2001 12:10 AM
MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) -- For Venus Williams, Serena Williams and Martina Hingis, the goal Saturday at the Australian Open was twofold: get into the fourth round, and get out of the heat. The three Grand Slam champions played at the same time on adjacent courts in sweltering conditions, and each won quickly. Serena Williams, seeded sixth, beat Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-1, 6-4. Eighteen minutes later, the top-seeded Hingis completed a 7-5, 6-1, victory over wild card Virginie Razzano. And 14 minutes after that, third-seeded Venus Williams finished off Denisa Chladkova 6-4, 6-1. "It was very hot," Venus Williams said. "I didn't want to make my stay too long. I was pretty fortunate." With a summer heat wave in its second day, temperatures were expected to exceed 36 degrees Celsius (97 Fahrenheit) and soar above 51 Celsius (124 Fahrenheit) on the sunbaked hardcourts. The sizzling court surface prompted chair umpire Jane Harvey to allow a brief interruption in the middle of a game during the Hingis-Razzano match to allow the players to change their shoes. No. 7 Mary Pierce wilted in the weather, losing to Paola Suarez 6-3, 6-2. No. 10 Amanda Coetzer beat Marlene Weingartner 6-2, 6-4. No. 13 Amelie Mauresmo, the 1999 runner-up, beat former French Open champion Iva Majoli 6-4, 6-2. In men's play, No. 10 Wayne Ferreira lost to 19-year-old Swede Andreas Vinciguerra 6-0, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3. That left 11 seeded men and 11 seeded women in the tournament. Unseeded Greg Rusedski, who eliminated No. 1 Gustavo Kuerten in the second round, beat qualifier Lars Burgsmuller 6-1, 6-2, 6-1. Rusedski lost only four points on his first serve. Two Frenchmen advanced. No. 15 Arnaud Clement beat Roger Federer 7-6 (5), 6-4, 6-4, and No. 16 Sebastien Grosjean defeated Thomas Johansson 6-4, 6-1, 6-4. Serena Williams won in just 58 minutes and complained more about the wind than the heat. "I'm pretty disappointed with the way I played," she said. "The wind was kind of chasing the ball a little. I didn't do the things I wanted to do." Williams lost her serve three times but was the much more aggressive player, belting 16 winners to four for Tanasugarn. "Especially in the early rounds, you should most likely win very quick," Williams said. She's one round from a possible quarterfinal matchup against Hingis. Hingis fell behind 4-2 but rallied to take the opening set in 39 minutes - about the length of her first two matches. She then pulled away, with half her points coming on errors by the 17-year-old Razzano. Venus Williams won in just 51 minutes despite an erratic effort. She reached 190 kilometers-per-hour (118 miles-per-hour) with her serve, fired eight aces and hit 25 winners, but she also had 24 unforced errors. Williams faces her first seeded opponent in the next round when she plays Mauresmo. "It's somewhat like two tournaments," Williams said. "The first week is possibly more dangerous. You're playing the lower-ranked players and have to be on your guard." Mauresmo was 0-for-5 on break-point opportunities before Majoli dumped a backhand into the net to lose the first set. Mauresmo broke again for a 2-0 lead in the second set, never lost serve and closed out the win in one hour, 16 minutes. The Frenchwoman has yet to drop a set in three rounds. Mauresmo, who was unseeded when she lost the 1999 final to Hingis, has struggled with a lower back injury since last spring. She was ranked sixth a year ago but has slipped to 20th.
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