WILLIAMS SWEPT ASIDE BY HINGIS

IT WAS billed as the real final of the French Open but Martina Hingis's straight-sets defeat of American Venus Williams today was another routine victory for the Swiss world No1, writes Rhys Williams.

Hingis took 82 minutes to defeat the closest thing she has to a rival 6-3, 6-4.

"I played with almost no mistakes and was very concentrated," Hingis said. "I thought it would be a tougher match." Williams' game was error strewn and two double faults in the sixth game of the second set gave her opponent the break that set up victory. Hingis meets either Jana Novotna or Monica Seles in Thursday's semi-final. Defending champion Iva Majoli lost in three sets to second seed Lindsay Davenport. STEFFI GRAF will drop out of the WTA Tour rankings on Monday. Graf, the winner of 21 Grand Slam singles titles, has played only two tournaments in the past 12 months. A player must compete in at least three in a year to be ranked.

Copyright 1998
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.