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Hingis’ Performance Is Sweet and Sound

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From Times Wire Services

Coincidence or commentary, songbirds warbled sweetly when Martina Hingis served, then quieted and let the crows caw crazily when it was Lisa Raymond’s turn.

That’s how it went throughout most of the second set today as No. 4 Hingis played lilting tennis to slip smoothly into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Raymond.

“I played almost perfect in the second set,” Hingis, 16, said of her first match against the 23-year-old American. “The first set was very tough. After the first set, I knew what I was going to do and how I was going to make the points.”

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First-set problems bedeviled two former men’s champions, top-seeded Pete Sampras and No. 11 Jim Courier. Both came back strongly, Sampras beating Romanian Adrian Voinea, 3-6, 6-2, 6-3, 6-2, and Courier downing Slava Dosedel of the Czech Republic, 4-6, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.

“By land or by sea, I got the job done,” Courier said after his second straight five-setter, this one in three hours 37 minutes.

Sampras blamed his slow start, in part, on the sun.

“There was about 20 or 30 minutes where I couldn’t really see the ball on the umpire’s right because of the sun, so I really didn’t serve the way I wanted to,” Sampras said. “Once I broke him [in the second set], I relaxed and got into a pretty good rhythm.”

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No. 5 Thomas Muster had much less difficulty in a 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 victory over South African Grant Stafford.

Arantxa Sanchez Vicario, who struggled in her first-round match, hardly had a chance to get any exercise in the second round Thursday. Not to be outdone in the nursing department by Steffi Graf, who treated a fallen opponent in the opening round, Sanchez Vicario went to the aid of Stephanie de Ville of Belgium when she sprained her ankle on the sixth point of the match.

“I put ice in my hand and put it on her ankle to help until the trainer came,” said Sanchez Vicario, who won, 1-0, retired. The last shot came on game point.

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quarterfinal match against

Tennis Notes

Ignacio Truyol, 23, of Spain has been suspended by the ATP Tour for one year for using banned substances. . . . International tennis officials are investigating allegations that Steffi Graf took appearance fees at tournaments--a banned practice that can result in a three-month suspension. . . . In the longest set in Australian Open history, the final set of a doubles match Wednesday was won, 29-27, by Australians Wayne Arthurs and Jon Ireland. The entire match lasted four hours 36 minutes, with the third set taking 3:21.

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