Tennis: Hingis advances to Australian record

Tennis

The 15-year-old Martina Hingis reached her first Grand Slam quarter- final yesterday by demolishing Brenda Schultz-McCarthy, the 11th seed.

Hingis's 6-1, 6-4 victory made her the youngest woman ever to reach this stage of the Australian Open. The previous record was held by Jennifer Capriati, who reached the quarter-finals in 1992, two months before her 16th birthday.

The unseeded Hingis, who even served underarm at one stage, clearly enjoyed herself on the Centre Court. Her triumph was the day's only surprise in the fourth round. Hingis, who smiled and giggled throughout her match, joined two other teenagers, Iva Majoli and Chanda Rubin, in the quarter- finals as the younger generation issued their challenge to Monica Seles.

Schultz-McCarthy gave little resistance, despite hitting the fastest serve ever recorded in a women's tournament - a 121.8mph delivery. Hingis produced a 100mph ace - her only one of the match - while leading 5-1 in the first set.

"My record!" Hingis said to Schultz-McCarthy, who replied, "So maybe I have to stay back." Schultz-McCarthy went back to face the next serve and Hingis produced an underhand delivery.

"She was standing maybe three metres behind the baseline, so it was fun," said Hingis, whose cheeky tactic failed to win the point.

But Schultz-McCarthy was less impressed. She said: "For her, it's just a game, which is great, I think. I wish I could see it like that. I'm 25. You fight for every point, and then this little girl just hits an underhand serve. She's 15 years old, what can you expect? She enjoys it out there and she plays a very quick game. For her it's an exhibition, it's fun. She is a little girl, but at times she is something special."

Conchita Martinez, the second seed, Anke Huber, the eighth seed, and Amanda Coetzer, seeded 16, all reached the last eight with straight-sets wins.

Martinez had surprisingly little difficulty in overwhelming Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 6-1. Huber had a comfortable 6-3, 6-2 victory over the unseeded Barbara Schett. Coetzer, who has rebuilt her game in an attempt to compete with the hard-hitting teenagers, beat Elena Likhovtseva 6-3, 6-3 to set up a meeting with Hingis.

In the men's event, Mark Philippoussis, 19, who beat Pete Sampras, was brought down to earth 6-2, 6-2, 6-2 by his fellow Australian Mark Woodforde. It is the first time Woodforde, one of the world's top doubles players, has reached the singles quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament.

Philippoussis, who served 29 aces against Sampras, had 12 against Woodforde - but they were offset by eight double faults. "It was very hard for me, after beating Sampras, to come back," Philippoussis said. "I think I maybe went on a bit too relaxed. When things didn't go too well at the start, I couldn't pump myself up, even though it was one of the biggest matches of my life."

Woodforde agreed that "he definitely wasn't the same player who played Pete Sampras", but he added: "He's such a great player that I think you should all just forget about this match and look forward to him playing much, much better tennis."

Boris Becker reached the quarter-finals after being given an early shock by New Zealand's Brett Steven. Becker, the No 4 seed, dropped the first set in alarming fashion before storming back to win 1-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-2. Becker put his first-set drubbing down to difficulty in working out Steven's weaknesses because he had only played him once before - in 1994 in a match won by Steven.

"I really had to think hard and dig deeper," said Becker, who described the turning point as breaking Steven's serve while down a break at 2-3 in the second set. "It was a good thing I broke him right back. All of a sudden my game was a notch better."

Becker finished with an ace to set up a match with Yevgeny Kafelnikov, who beat MaliVai Washington 6-3, 6-2, 6-4.

The first two quarter-finals will be played today. Andre Agassi, the No 2 seed, is looking to secure the world No 1 spot by beating Jim Courier, the eighth seed. Michael Chang, the No 5 seed, plays the unseeded Mikael Tillstrom, of Sweden.