Martina Hingis faces her first big test of the year after reaching a quarter-final showdown with Serena Williams at the Sydney International yesterday. The world number one overcame Belgium's Kim Clijsters 6-4, 6-4 to set up the prospect of a compelling clash with fifth seed Williams, who overpowered fellow American Brie Rippner 6-1, 6-2.

Australian Open champion Lindsay Davenport and last year's Sydney international winner Amelie Mauresmo also moved through to the last eight, but seeds Anna Kournikova, Amanda Coetzer and Jennifer Capriati all bowed out.

Arnaud Clement of France made an early exit from the men's draw when he was beaten by George Bastl and last week's Australian hardcourt champion Tommy Haas fell to fellow-German Rainer Schuttler 7-6, 7-6 in a match that finished after midnight. But the remaining big names, including top seed Magnus Norman and defending champion Lleyton Hewitt, all won.

On the first day of the the Kooyong Classic exhibition, also in Sydney, world number two Marat Safin withdrew and number three Pete Sampras suffered a heavy defeat. US Open champion Safin withdrew from the roundrobin exhibition after going down 6-2, 6-1 to France's Nicolas Escude. He said he was suffering from an elbow injury which prevented him serving properly and might not be able to play in next week's Australian Open.

"I will try to play on, but I know other players have had to have operations to cure this injury," the 20-year-old Russian said. "At the moment I'm afraid of making it worse."

The disappointing trend for the top names was bucked by Andre Agassi and Yevgeny Kafelnikov, last year's Australian Open champion and runner-up respectively, who were both impressive with their first-round victories over Nicolas Kiefer and Pat Rafter.