Williams Sisters, Hingis Move On to Quarterfinals

M E L B O U R N E, Australia, Jan. 22 -- Next time, Venus Williams says, she needs a better game plan.

"At the end, I really just went for the gold and got lucky,"was her explanation of how she beat Amelie Mauresmo 6-2, 3-6, 6-3today to advance to the Australian Open quarterfinals.

After suffering through a midmatch flurry of wild hitting,Williams was serving for the match at 5-3.

Mauresmo ended a 26-shot rally with stunning backhand down theline for a break point before Williams, the Wimbledon, U.S. Openand Olympic champion, came back with a forehand winner and twoaces.

"I guess we weren't really sure about what we were going todo," said the No. 3 seed. "I'd better walk out with a better gameplan next time."

Hingis, Williams Advance to Quarterfinals

Williams' younger sister, Serena, was more overpowering in a6-2, 6-2 victory over Daja Bedanova, the 17-year-old Czech who hadknocked out Olympic silver medalist and U.S. Open semifinalistElena Dementieva.

Top seed Martina Hingis, the most prominent obstacle to aWilliams sisters semifinal, advanced to a quarterfinal meeting withSerena by beating Rita Grande 6-0, 6-3.

With nearly 6,000 people watching a doubles match involving AnnaKournikova on Court 1, play was briefly interrupted when a15-year-old boy threw a smoking orange flare on the court. Securityapprehended him.

"I was hitting the ball and suddenly something dropped in frontof me," Kournikova said. "I just walked away."

A streaker interrupted one of Kournikova's doubles matches atWimbledon last year.

Venus Loses Serve But Pulls Through

Venus Williams received plenty of help from 1999 Australianrunner-up Mauresmo, who committed 44 unforced errors to 43 by Venusin the 1-hour, 41-minute slugfest.

Venus charged the net against Mauresmo's first serve of thematch and took the point with two quick volleys. She stayed incommand long enough to break serve in the second set's third game.

Then she lost serve in a game with six errors, including twodouble faults, and was broken again to give Mauresmo a 4-2 leadthanks to four more errors, including her seventh of 10 doublefaults for the match.