INDIAN WELLS (California), March 15: Top seed Lleyton Hewitt cruised into the quarterfinals of the $2.95million Tennis Masters Series tournament here Thursday, once again leaving a frustrated Jan-Michael Gambill in his wake.

Australia’s Hewitt, who ended 2001 as the youngest year-end world number one ever, beat the unseeded American 6-2, 6-4.

Pete Sampras, who held the year-end world number one ranking six years in a row in the 1990s, struggled past unseeded French veteran Fabrice Santoro 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Sampras, seeded 10th and seeking his first tournament title since Wimbledon 2000, served for the match at 5-2 in the third only to see Santoro, known as an escape artist, surge back to 5-5.

Sampras held for 6-5 then broke Santoro in the final game when the Frenchman double faulted on match point — only his second double fault of the match.

Sampras said he’d need to serve and volley better in his quarter-final against unseeded German Rainer Schuettler, a 6-2, 6-2 winner over Chilean Marcelo Rios.

In Hewitt’s match, the frustration was all on Gambill’s side, and Hewitt said he recognized it as early as the first game.

Hewitt ousted Gambill in the semi-finals en route to the title at San Jose. After taking a week off, he is playing his third tournament of the year after a bout with chicken pox disrupted his early season.

Hewitt next plays Sweden’s Thomas Enqvist, who beat Switzerland’s Roger Federer 6-4, 6-3.

Ninth seeded Briton Tim Henman advanced with a 7-6 (7/3), 6-4 victory over seventh seed Marat Safin of Russia.

Like Hewitt, Henman benefitted from his opponent’s frustration.

Up a break and serving for the first set at 5-4, Safin dropped his serve to give Henman an opening.

In the second, Henman finally earned a break in the ninth to lead 5-4. Although he opened his service game for the match with a double fault, he regrouped and gave himself match point with an ace.

In the quarters he’ll face Argentina’s Gaston Gaudio, who beat Julien Boutter 7-6 (8/6), 2-6, 6-1 thanks in large part to the French player’s 70 unforced errors.

Second seed Yevgeny Kafelnikov, trying to improve on his semi-final performance here last year, beat Juan Ignacio Chela to reach the quarter-finals.

Kafelnikov defeated the unseeded Argentinian 7-6 (10/8), 6-4, fighting off two set points in the first set tiebreaker. In the quarters he’ll play US veteran Todd Martin, who beat qualifier Karol Kucera of Slovakia 7-5, 6-2.

In the featured night match, women’s second seed Martina Hingis steamrolled fourth-seeded American Monica Seles 6-3, 6-2. It was a disappointing end to the tournament for Seles, who beat Hingis twice last year and had taken her to three sets in two meetings this year.

In Saturday’s final, Hingis will play 18-year-old Slovakian Daniela Hantuchova, who defeated unseeded Swiss Emmanuelle Gagliardi 4-6, 6-0, 6-4 to make the first final of her career the championship match in the 2.1 million-dollar tier one event.

RESULTS