Top seeds ease into French Open semifinals

Top seeds Gustavo Kuerten and Martina Hingis cruised into the French Open semifinals with comfortable victories on Tuesday.

Kuerten stayed on course for his third Roland Garros crown by beating Russian Yevgeny Kafelnikov 6-1,3-6,7-6,6-4, while Hingis still has her sights on the only Grand Slam title to elude her after defeating unseeded Francesca Schiavone 6-1,6-4.

Hingis will next meet fourth seed Jennifer Capriati, her conqueror in this year's Australian Open final, after the American beat sixth-seeded compatriot Serena Williams 6-2,5-7,6-2.

Kuerten will face fourth seed Juan Carlos Ferrero in a repeat of last year's semifinal, the Spaniard having overwhelmed Australian sixth seed Lleyton Hewitt 6-4, 6-2, 6-1.

Earlier, 14th-seeded Belgian Justine Henin breezed into the last four, demolishing Russia's Lina Krasnoroutskaya 6-1,6-2 to reach her first Grand Slam semifinal in which she will take on compatriot Kim Clijsters.

Kuerten's victory was the third time he has beaten Kafelnikov in a Roland Garros quarter-final, and on both previous occasions - in 1997 and 2000 - the Brazilian went on to win the title.

BIT RELAXED

"I was almost out of the tournament in the last round when I faced match point (against American qualifier Michael Russell) so I am grateful to be here," Kuerten said.

"From now on, I don't have much more pressure on myself to win, to beat the other guys.

"It's pretty open now. Maybe I can take more risks and play my game a little bit relaxed," he said. "I'm not so much the favourite, I think."

He played like the tournament favourite, though, starting the better on Centre Court and wrapping up the opening set with some devastating baseline play before Kafelnikov, seeded seventh, hit back to level.

The Russian, French Open champion in 1996, squandered five break points at 4-4 in the third set, though, and Kuerten went on to take it in a tiebreak.

Kafelnikov lost heart and the Brazilian reeled off the fourth set with ease, clinching victory in two hours, 32 minutes.

Hingis, the Swiss world number one, overwhelmed her 20-year-old Italian opponent with a series of wrong-footing groundstrokes and deft touches around the court.

The victory, achieved in 68 minutes, put Hingis through to her fifth consecutive semifinal at Roland Garros.

TOO CONFIDENT

"Maybe I was a little bit too confident in the second set but it is a good thing to be confident," said Hingis, who won the last of her five Grand Slams at the 1999 Australian Open.

Capriati's victory put her in the last four at Roland Garros for the first time since 1990 when, as a 14-year-old, she became the youngest player to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam.

She double-faulted at match point when leading 5-4 in the second set to allow sixth-seeded Williams back into the contest, but regrouped in the third to complete her victory.

"I should have pulled it out in the second set," she said. "So I am just proud I won in the third."

Henin, who celebrated her 19th birthday last week, needed just 50 minutes to clinch victory and become the first Belgian to reach a Grand Slam semifinal.

The 14th seed played with grace and guile to overwhelm the 17-year-old Krasnoroutskaya, a former junior world number one.

"I did what I wanted to do, it is a fifth consecutive straight-sets win which is important," said Henin, who began the year with back-to-back tournament wins in Australia.

MORE FREEDOM

"I have prepared well," she added. "My coach and I have worked on the problems of pressure and how to release it. I played much more freely today."

Henin will next face the 12th-seeded Clijsters, who overcame unseeded Hungarian Petra Mandula 6-1, 6-3 in only 55 minutes.

Ferrero outclassed Hewitt, playing with poise and power from the back of the Centre Court.

He outmanoeuvred and overpowered the gritty Australian to race through the opening two sets, hitting the corners of the court at will with his heavy groundstrokes.

Hewitt had come back from two-sets down to beat Argentine Guillermo Canas in the fourth round, but Ferrero refused to relax and closed out the match comfortably.

"I knew that Hewitt was capable of coming back so it was important to start the third set strongly," Ferrero said.

"I did that with a break and I played very solidly throughout."

The two remaining men's quarter-finals will be played on Wednesday, when third seed Andre Agassi takes on home favourite and 10th seed Sebastien Grosjean, and unseeded Swiss Roger Federer meets Spanish 13th seed Alex Corretja.