Top seed Martina Hingis today continued her relentless march towards a fourth consecutive Australian Open crown with a 6-1 6-1 rout of Spanish 13th seed Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in the quarter-finals of this year's first Grand Slam event. The world number one took just 45 minutes to record her 26th successive win at Melbourne Park and her 13th straight triumph over Sanchez-Vicario. Hingis will now meet Conchita Martinez in the last four. Martinez, the former Wimbledon Champion, beat Russian 16th seed Elena Likhovtseva in three sets.
In the men's quarter-finals Yevgenny Kafelnikov beat Younes El Aynaoui in straight sets. Kafelnikov brushed aside his opponent in only one hour 41 minutes, winning 6-0, 6-3, 7-6. The second seed plays 12th-seeded Magnus Norman, of Sweden, who beat Nicolas Kiefer. Norman reached his first Grand Slam semi-final with a 3-6, 6-3, 6-1, 7-6 victory over the fourth seeded German.
Jennifer Capriati and Lindsay Davenport complete the women's semi-final line-up while Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras complete the men's line-up.
Meanwhile, Martina Navratilova, Australian Davis Cup star Malcolm Anderson and Robert Kelleher, former president of the United States Tennis Association, have been elected to the International Tennis Hall of Fame in New York.
