TOKYO, Jan 30: Martina Hingis eased aside Marlene Weingartner at the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament here Wednesday, taking a comfortable step toward reclaiming title she has held three times.

The 21-year-old Swiss Miss, the finalist here in the past five years with victories in 1997, 1999 and 2000, needed only 48 minutes to score a 6-1, 6-2 win over the German and reach a quarterfinal berth.

Fourth seed Sandrine Testud of France joined Hingis in the quarterfinals, after taking a tough one hour 57 minutes to beat Barbara Schett of Austria 4-6, 7-5, 7-5.

In other first-round action, Sydney Olympic silver medallist Elena Dementieva used her hard shots in full swing to beat Japan’s Saori Obata 6-3, 6-3 and set up a glamorous battle against fellow Russian Anna Kournikova.

Belgian qualifier Els Callens, ranked only 203rd, eliminated the last local hope to disappoint a partisan crowd by defeating Japan’s ace Ai Sugiyama 1-6, 6-2, 6-4.

American qualifier Alexandra Stevenson also advanced to the second round beating Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia 6-1, 6-4.

Rusedski wins: Big-serving Briton Greg Rusedski Wednesday blasted his way into round three of the Milan Indoors tournament.

Rusedski dispatched Czech player and part-time film star Bohdan Ulihrach in his second round match, prevailing 7-6 (7/5), 6-4.—AFP