Hingis primed to add to Grand Slam tally

Steffi Graf, Monica Seles and Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario are not about to abdicate, nor facilitate sections of the print media who constantly trumpet the arrival of a younger generation, epitomised by the Williams sisters, Venus and Serena, and Anna Kournikova: colour they may provide but at the business end of Grand Slams nothing tangible. At Roland Garros yesterday it was the familiar faces of the last decade that offered substance to ambition.

Beads akimbo, the Williams sisters had been sent scuttling from the tournament while Kournikova, who acquitted herself well in a defeat by Graf at the weekend, like her American counterparts has yet to deliver on obvious potential in a Grand Slam. Only world number one Martina Hingis deserves to be bracketed alongside established champions like Graf, Seles and SanchezVicario.

At 18 years of age she has already amassed five Grand Slam titles and yesterday offered compelling evidence that she is primed to add to that total. While Venus Williams crumbled first mentally and then physically against Austria's Barbara Schwartz, Hingis demonstrated no such fallibility against the same opponent.

Her straight-sets victory, 6-2 62, achieved with precision and intelligence, hallmarked excellent tennis. She dictated the pattern of the match, moved her opponent around the court and never allowed the young Austrian qualifier to establish any rhythm. Schwartz was relegated to the occasional backhand winner.

Hingis will now face defending champion Sanchez-Vicario in the semi-finals tomorrow, the Spaniard accounting for the brave challenge of Silvia Plischke. The Austrian had beaten SanchezVicario on clay as recently as the Italian Open but the 1998 French Open champion was not about to relinquish her title. Noted for her extraordinary resilience mentally and physically, Sanchez-Vicario wore her opponent down.

Plischke's tendency towards the wild flail with some ground strokes facilitated her opponent's passage. She lacked the patience to work and wait for the openings, too often trying to leather good length balls. If Sanchez-Vicario does possess a flaw on what is her favourite surface (three times French Open champion) it is an inability to hit her forehand a little flatter when she wishes to put away short balls.

Her reliance on heavy topspin occasionally allows opponents to scramble back into points and the Spaniard is then forced to have to win points two and three times over. Hingis, though, will have to gird herself to work hard against an opponent who is loathe to concede defeat, whether that is a point, a game or a match.

Steffi Graf's remarkable association with Roland Garros continued unabated with a hard fought 6-1, 6-7, 6-3 victory over world number two Lindsay Davenport. The German has reached the quarter-finals at the French Open on her last 13 appearances in the championship. Five times a champion, Paris holds a very special place in her heart.

Nursing a 7-5 advantage in the head-to-head clashes between the players, Graf coasted through the first set in 25 minutes, breaking in the fourth and sixth games. She appeared sharp, moving fluently and availing of most opportunities presented. Davenport in contrast was sluggish in her footwork, stretching for, rather than moving, to the ball.

It is an achilles heel that will prevent her winning as many Grand Slam titles as her ability suggests. She possesses ground strokes of phenomenal power and, when she managed to position herself correctly, forced Graf into an inelegant scramble. Davenport admitted prior to the championships that she prefers the solid feel of a hardcourt underneath her.

That is borne out by the evidence of her play. On clay a player must slide into the ball when moving quickly; Davenport refuses to do so and this makes her cumbersome and vulnerable. On countless occasions she stood rooted as Graf chased down balls and returned them to a decent length, the American struggling to get her feet moving. It ultimately denied her victory.

Davenport, through greater aggression on the return, broke her opponent in the sixth game only to lose her serve in the next, two backhand errors at deuce costing her dearly. Still she toughed it out until the tiebreak which she won 7-5 with a beautifully executed backhand volley winner. The impetus she created in taking the set evaporated as her movement became more laboured, Graf producing some excellent tennis to race into a 5-1 lead.

The American then rallied briefly with some booming groundstrokes but at 5-3, Graf won a marathon ninth game in which she enjoyed five match points to ensure victory. Davenport graciously acknowledged Graf's superiority before reiterating her dislike of clay.