Tennis: Hingis homes in on title

Top seed Martina Hingis continued her quest to win the only grand slam to have been denied her with a 7-5 6-1 defeat of Australian Rachel McQuillan at the French Open.

The Swiss 20-year-old had her serve broken four times in the first set and made a most untypical 26 unforced errors, but she stepped up a gear in the second and won every point on first serve.

She will meet home hope Sandrine Testud in the fourth round after the 17th seed saw off the challenge of Russian Elena Bovina, winning 6-3 7-6 (7/3).

Hingis, who has yet to drop a set, admitted: "I’m happy to have this one behind me that’s for sure.

"Definitely today I was struggling a little bit. But I can’t play every match perfect."

The comeback queen of women’s tennis, Jennifer Capriati, took just 51 minutes to rush through to the fourth round with an emphatic 6-3 6-1 victory over Croatia’s Mirjana Lucic.

The 25-year-old Australian Open champion, who was the youngest-ever semi-finalist at Roland Garros as a schoolgirl of 14 years and two months, looked relaxed and confident.

"I just feel real positive about everything," she admitted.

"There’s nothing I have to feel bad about. I feel lucky and fortunate for what I do. I just kind of have that attitude all the time now. It puts everything in perspective."

Conchita Martinez of Spain became the latest woman seed to fall at Roland Garros when she was defeated 3-6 6-3 6-4 by Zimbabwe’s Cara Black.

The demise of eighth-seed Martinez means that no Spanish woman remains in the last 16 at Paris for the first time since 1986.

America’s Meghann Shaughnessy, the number 16 seed, overcame Janette Husarova of Slovakia 7-5 6-4 while Russia’s Nadia Petrova battled past Amy Frazier of the United States 6-7 6-4 6-3.

Meanwhile French Open officials fined ousted men’s second seed Marat Safin £7,050 for failing to attend the mandatory press conference after his defeat by Fabrice Santoro.

The Russian had lost in five sets to the Frenchman in a stunning match.

He came from two-sets-to-love and a break down in the third set to force a decider with a run of 10 successive games.

But just as Safin looked to be on the way to victory, he folded and Santoro reeled off six straight games to clinch victory.

Safin was warned by the match umpire for smashing his racquet to the floor as the match drifted away, and then neglected to speak to the media.

Santoro, who knocked Safin out of last year’s Olympics, dominated the opening two sets.

Santoro said his earlier record against Safin was something he put to the back of his mind.

"I was not thinking back about the past clashes between us. I knew what tactics to deploy against him.

"When you lose five times out of six against the same player the other guy is uncertain."

Santoro now faces Spanish 13th seed Alex Corretja who motored into the last 16 crushing Swede Magnus Larsson 6-0 6-3 6-4.

French 10th seed Sebastien Grosjean beat compatriot Anthony Dupuis to reach the last 16 winning 6-4 2-6 3-6 6-4 6-2.

Grosjean now faces unseeded Spaniard Galo Blanco, who ousted Germany’s Lars Burgsmuller 7-5 6-2 6-3.