Hingis books berth in Open semis

Third seed Martina Hingis raced into the semifinals of the Australian Open on Tuesday with a clinical 6-2 6-3 defeat of unseeded Italian Adriana Serra Zanetti.

Hingis outclassed Serra Zanetti and finished off their quarter-final on Melbourne Park's Rod Laver Arena in 73 minutes.

Hingis, who has not won a grand slam title since her third successive Australian Open victory in 1999, has dropped just 14 games as she brushed aside her first five opponents and has been in dazzling form on her way to the last four.

But a much harder test awaits there, where she will play either second seed and hot favourite Venus Williams or former world number one Monica Seles, who meet later on Tuesday.

"It's definitely an interesting match up, they both are playing pretty well," said Hingis.

"Venus definitely has the game, everybody put her as the favourite at the beginning of the tournament. Monica has nothing to lose, but it depends on how Venus is going to play," she said.

Hingis will be vying for her sixth straight finals appearance in Melbourne after losing to Jennifer Capriati last year and Lindsay Davenport in 2000. She said she felt even better than she did at the same stage last year.

"All of us have improved," Hingis said. "If you stay still you're going to drop out of there."

"I think I've reached some stage that I haven't been before."

TOUGH RUN

In a remarkably tough stretch of matches in Melbourne last year, Hingis beat Serena Williams in the quarter-finals and then Venus in the semifinals before she was beaten 6-4 6-3 by Capriati in the final.

Hingis said she is also happy with her fitness as she works her way back from ankle surgery last October. She won a warm-up event in Sydney -- her first title in a year -- before coming to Melbourne.

"Sometimes it's nice that you have time to regroup and then go 100 percent behind everything," she said of her injury layoff.

"This is what players like me wait for, big occasions of a grand slam, semifinals and hopefully the final," she said.

Serra Zanetti was playing her first grand slam quarter-final. She reached the fourth round in the 1995 French Open.

She had few answers to Hingis's pinpoint groundstrokes and struggled to hold serve against a barrage of sharp returns.

In taking five games off Hingis, the tiny Serra Zanetti at least gave the Swiss her toughest workout of the tournament.

"She had some great points, those down the lines and the little angles she plays," Hingis said.

"She definitely made me run, she made me earn the semifinal spot," she said.

The match was played with centre court's retractable roof closed after morning rain.

Hingis, who has become used to playing bigger power hitters like the Williams sisters and Capriati, said it was nice to play someone smaller than her for once.

Baseliner Serra Zanetti stands just 1.6 m (5 ft 3 in) to Hingis's 1.7 m (5 ft 7 in).

Hingis and Serra Zanetti had never before played on the professional tour.

Serra Zanetti, a talented player but one who has played only fitfully at Grand Slams since 1994, remembered playing Hingis as juniors when she was 14 and Hingis 10.

"She was already a very good player and she beat me," Serra Zanetti said of their match 11 years ago.