January 11, 2002	Friday	Shawwal 26, 1422

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SYDNEY, Jan 10: Martina Hingis cruised into the semifinals of the Sydney International on Thursday with a 6-4 6-2 win over Sandrine Testud to boost her confidence of ending her grand slam drought at next week’s Australian Open.

Competing in her first tournament since an ankle injury cost her the number one ranking last year, Hingis extended her perfect record against Testud with her 16th straight win over the Frenchwoman.

Hingis will play Kim Clijsters in Friday’s semifinals after the world number five defeated her Belgian Fed Cup team mate Justine Henin 7-6 6-2.

American Meghann Shaughnessy claimed the last semifinal spot in the women’s draw when she disposed of Alexandra Stevenson 6-4 6-1 to set up a showdown with Serena Williams, who booked her place with a 6-4 7-6 win over Amelie Mauresmo the previous night.

The men’s draw, already weakened by the early exit of six of the eight seeds, lost another contender when unseeded French Davis Cup hero Nicolas Escude pulled out of his quarter-final with Argentine Juan Ignacio Chela because of a groin strain.

Chela will play Max Mirnyi in the semifinals after the Belarussian beat Frenchman Julien Boutter 6-4 6-2 to reach the semifinals of an ATP event for only the third time in his career.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer and rising American teenager Andy Roddick were the only two men’s seeds to make it through to the last four at Sydney’s Olympic tennis centre.

Federer came from behind to defeat former world number one Marcelo Rios 6-7 7-6 6-3 while Roddick also fought back to beat Korean Lee Hyung-taik 6-7 6-3 7-5 in the best match so far of the tournament.

Lee, ranked 115th in the world, almost pulled off a major upset when he led 3-0 in the third set but Roddick, who climbed from 160 to 16 last year with three tournament wins, won the next four games in a row.

The match swung back in Lee’s favour when he broke, then held serve to lead 5-4 before Roddick won the last three games to seal victory.

Federer, whose outstanding performance last year was beating Pete Sampras at Wimbledon, said he was a great admirer of Rios’ game and predicted the Chilean would be a danger at the Australian Open.

Hingis, who will be chasing her first grand slam title since winning the 1999 Australian Open, said she was delighted by her progress and felt she was getting close to her best.

She dropped an early service game in the first set but held each of her remaining games after switching from a high-kicking serve to a slicing serve.

Thurday’s results:

Quarterfinals: (prefix number denotes seeding):