Seles ousts Testud in marathon contest

Monica Seles beat Sandrine Testud 3-6 7-6 6-4 on Thursday to reach the quarter-finals of the $565,000 Los Angeles women's Classic, notching up her seventh straight win over the Frenchwoman in the process.

"Sandrine and I always play marathon matches," said the sixth-seeded Seles, who improved her career mark to 9-3 against the tenth seed.

"Both of us have similar styles and we're huge competitors. It just seems we bring out the best in each other in these long matches."

In the feature night match, second-seeded Lindsay Davenport of the U.S. won the last four games of the first set, and four of the last five in the second, to defeat Daja Bedanova of the Czech Republic 6-3 6-3 in 62 minutes.

The victory set up a meeting against seventh seed Elena Dementieva who beat French teenager Virginie Razzano 6-4 6-4.

Seles, who lost to Venus Williams in the finals of the Acura Classic last week, will meet younger sister Serena, the two-time defending champion and fourth-seed in Friday night's feature quarter-final clash.

"Obviously I have huge respect for her game," said Seles, who trails 0-3 in the head-to-head series. "She's a very powerful player from both sides and serves well. It's going to be another one of those hard-hitting matches."

Earlier in the day, third-seeded Belgian Kim Clijsters defeated hard-serving Australian Alicia Molik 7-6 6-3 to set up a quarter-final clash against Nathalie Tauziat.

The fifth seeded Frenchwoman came through an erratic match against 11th seed Jelena Dokic of Yugoslavia to post a 6-0 0-6 6-2 victory in 62 minutes.

"It was OK," said Clijsters following the 71-minute victory. "I was not at my best but it's hard to play against Alicia. It's hard to get into a rhythm on her serve, but I'm happy that I won and happy I could raise my level throughout the match."

The tournament 12th seed Amy Frazier of the U.S. also advanced, brushing aside wildcard entry Wynne Prakusya of Indonesia 7-5 6-3 in a little over an hour.

Prakusya was a last minute replacement for the injured Russian star Anna Kournikova.