Hingis-Henin cruise, Dokic stalls
( 2002-03-11 10:47 ) (7 )

Second seed Martina Hingis and third seed Justine Henin eased into the fourth round of the Indian Wells Masters on Sunday but fifth seed Jelena Dokic's comeback from injury stalled with a 6-3 6-0 loss to Luxembourg's Anne Kremer.

Hingis, the top remaining seed after number one Kim Clijsters crashed out at the first hurdle, suffered from occasional lapses of concentration against Elena Likhovtseva but never looked in danger sweeping past the Russian 6-3 6-3.

After struggling with Slovenia's Maja Matevzic in the second round, Henin shifted into top gear for her match against Adriana Serra Zanetti dispatching the 43rd ranked Italian 6-3 6-0 in just 53 minutes.

Dokic, forced to retire from her last two tournaments including the final of the Paris indoors with a right thigh injury, managed to complete her match but was in clear distress as Kremer cruised to victory sweeping the final nine games.

With both legs heavily taped, having strained her left thigh in a second round clash with Elena Bovina a day earlier, Dokic managed to hold serve just once the entire contest as Kremer broke the 18-year-old Yugoslav seven times.

"I hurt my other leg yesterday and I was just 50 per cent but I wanted to try," Dokic, who also lost her opening match of the Pan Pacific championship to Kremer. "But as I went further into the match it got worse.

"I'm disappointed, I tried my best. It was really hurting.

"You never know how it is going to feel until you start playing but it definitely wasn't good enough to compete."

HINGIS PROSPERS

In sharp contrast, Hingis continued to show no signs of the wrist injury that forced her to withdraw from the doubles and had threatened to knock her out of the $2.1 million tournament.

The Swiss former-world number one, who had been in ruthless form a day earlier dispatching Silvija Talaja 6-0 6-1, looked poised for another romp when she took Likhovtesa's opening serve.

But Hingis was unable to stamp her authority on the contest allowing her Russian opponent to immediately break.

It was a pattern that continued through out the match, Hingis finally asserting herself when she had to, breaking Likhovtseva to go ahead 5-3 in the first set and to close out the match with a break in the second.

"Yesterday I was relieved that everything went well and my wrist wasn't bothering me and all the excitement and pressure from yesterday's match was gone today," said Hingis. "Today I was a little step slow.

"But it helped me to have won this match the way I did."

Henin, twice a finalist this season losing both times to world number one Venus Williams, wasted no taking control of her third round match, breaking Zanetti at the first opportunity in both sets.

Displaying the sharpness that was missing from her opening match, Henin simply overwhelmed Zanetti in the second set breaking the Italian three times before closing out the match with one of her trademark stinging backhands.

"Today was easier for sure," said Henin. "It's easier after you've already played a match.

"I'm happy with way I played today, I was aggressive and didn't make a lot of mistakes."

In other third round play, American Alexandra Stevenson gave the largest crowd of the week reason to cheer as she upset eighth seed Elena Dementieva 6-4 0-6 6-4.

Frenchwoman Nathalie Dechy, who upset top seed Kim Clijsters in the second round, saw her dream run come to an end with 7-6 7-5 loss to Russia's Anastasia Myskina.