Mary Pierce, almost impeccable in her quarterfinal rout of Serena Williams two days ago, showed us she hasn't metamorphosed into Lindsay Davenport quite yet as she dropped a 6-4, 6-2 semifinal encounter to a fluid and confident Martina Hingis.

The fifth-seeded Pierce started the match in the same impressive mode that she displayed throughout the Williams match. Many of her 21 winners came during the first half of the first set. Pierce opened the match by holding her serve at love, and then broke Hingis's serve when at 15-30 she cuffed two successive crosscout forehand winners. This was the only break point that Pierce was to get in the entire match. At 2-0 Hingis connected with her first clean winner, a forehand return of serve down the line (this was an excellent weapon for Martina all match long), but Pierce continued to play well, following a cross-court forehand to the net to claim a 3-0 lead. Pierce was definitely the better player at this stage, and Hingis said "I felt like I was at the Formula One with all those balls going past me."

At this point we noticed a few errors started to creep into Pierce's game, while Hingis began picking up the pace and pounding the balls deeper and closer to the lines, making the adopted Frenchwoman work harder for her points. The key game of that turned around the match came at 4-1, Hingis serving. Martina was in a spot of bother on her serve again, 15-30, but stepped up her shotmaking and wore down Mary in a couple of long rallies to save the game. From this point forward Pierce's game dipped noticeably and she became increasingly sluggish and error-prone, and Hingis broke Pierce easily in the next game to pull the score to 3-4. "I just kind of rallied with her for those two games," explained Pierce. "That probably took a little bit out of me. My legs were already tired, kind of heavy." It seemed odd that Pierce would be sluggish, since she had a short match against Serena Williams and a day off yesterday. Mary had some difficulty finding an explanation for her her fatigue. "Well, it could have been the mistake that my hotel gave me a wake-up call at 6:45 (she had been planning to sleep until 8:30!).... No, that's not a reason. Maybe just playing, you know, the whole week. I've had some three-set matches, playing singles and doubles."

Whatever the explanation, it was all Hingis the rest of the way, and despite the imploring of the pro-Pierce crowd, Hingis won the remainder of the games in the fourth set -- five in a row, in total -- to take the lead 6-4.

Pierce made an attempt to stay with the world number one early in the second set, but her hopes of victory began to evaporate when she was broken at 1-1 on a Hingis backhand that hit the tape and trickled over the net. Hingis cruised the rest of the way, finishing it off in style with a tasty half volley to set up a match point that she coverted with a service winner. Make the final: 6-4, 6-2, in 59 minutes.

Pierce thought that Hingis didn't do anything special to turn the match around. "Martina, I give her credit because she stayed in the match the whole way through, just played consistent. Just did what she needed to do, bring the balls back." Hingis seemed to agree that Pierce essentially lost it when she started missing the shots she had been making early in the match. "She had a great beginning. I'm like, OK, I'll wait for my chance and see what happens.... You can't play like that the whole match, so I still had hope."

Hingis now moves on to the final to face another one of "those big girls", as she calls them, indeed the best of the lot, Lindsay Davenport. Lindsay has notched four consecutive straight-set against Martina, and Hingis recognizes that with the games they have, she just has to hope that Davenport doesn't come up with another great match and overpower her again. "I just have to stay in the game," admitted the Swiss star. "Even if I lose the first set, I still have to think they might lose their streak, their control, and just get everything back. That's always been my game, a little defensive always in the beginning, then try to be more aggressive when I get the chance. But when they come out and serve that big and hit that deep, those balls, there's not much I can do."

Pierce takes the confidence of reaching two straight semifinals on to the next stop on the tour, another Tier One tournament in Miami. "I've been working hard lately and it's starting to pay off. I know I've still got to work harder, just keep doing what I've been doing. It hopefully can continue to pay off."

The up-and-down form that Pete Sampras showed in his last two matches finally caught up to him tonight, as he fell in the semifinals to a solid Thomas Enqvist. Sampras had barely survived a third set tie-break against Wayne Ferreira in the second round, and started slowly against Byron Black yesterday before subduing him in three sets. But the double faults and inconsistent forehand that plagued him all week were finally fatal against a solid opponent who would not be denied.

As one expected in quick conditions and with strong servers, service breaks were the key. There were only three: Sampras broken in the first and third set, and Enqvist in the second. But overall Enqvist was the more solid performer and was full value for the win.

In the first set Enqvist made the first dent in Sampras's serve in game eight. This was basically a giveaway by Sampras, who lost three of the four points on double faults. Pete finished in double digits in the double fault department with ten, six of them coming in the two games in which his serve was broken. Stubbornly, Sampras refused to take something off his risky second serves although it was clear they were not working well. "I'm going for big seconds. It's because I feel I can. I feel like I've got the ability to hit the best second serve in the world: might as well use it. Sometimes you miss them, and tonight I missed them." Enqvist went on to serve out the set, but not without some drama. At 5-3, 30-30, he had about the easiest volley imaginable on his racquet but somehow knocked it two feet outside the line. Thomas, whose volleys have always been an adventure throughout his career, tossed his racquet behind him and shaked his head in disbelief. On break point the Swede moved to the net again and had almost an identical backhand volley, and this time made no mistake. He closed out the set with an ace, and led 6-3.

In the second set Sampras was again on the ropes serving at 1-1, falling behind 0-40 on two errors and a double fault. But he fought his way to deuce on the strength of some fine serving and volleying, and finally held after four deuces when a defensive lob by Enqvist landed long. Inspired, Sampras came back to break Enqvist's serve for the only time in the match in the next game, as Enqvist made three straight baseline errors. Enqvist was unable to make any impression on the Sampras serve in the rest of the set, and a third set was in order.

Sampras appeared to have the momentum now, as his serving had solidified and Enqvist was frustrated at not putting more returns in play. But at 2-2 Sampras committed his second "horrendous service game", to use his words. A double fault, an Enqvist backhand second serve return winner, and a double fault made it 0-40. Sampras saved a break point with a service winner, but at 15-40 dumped yet another second serve into the net to hand the Swede his decisive break. In the remainder of the set Sampras pulled out all the stops to get the break back, Enqvist was determined not to give it away, and we were treated to some of the best tennis of the night. With Enqvist serving for the match at 5-3, the first point saw Sampras attempt to conclude a thrilling all-court point at the net: Enqvist threw up a lob and Pete tried his famed leaping overhead. But it was not a vintage one (I had the feeling all week that Sampras was restricted a bit in his movement because of his recent back worries, although he never admitted to it): the shot was weak and right back to Enqvist, who ripped a forehand pass up the line. Enqvist went on to close out the game at love, with a service winner on match point. Make the final: 6-3, 3-6, 6-3.

Although Sampras was not helped by his wayward second serve, overall the better player on the night won this match. Enqvist was solid as a rock in key situations, and Sampras made too many forehand errors from the baseline to worry Enqvist's game (43 unforced errors in total).

The rare win over Sampras, his second in eleven tries, is a source of satisfaction coming as it does against the man Enqvist feels is "the best player who ever played the game." "Now I hope we don't play any more," quipped the Swede, "so I beat him the last time." Enqvist's semifinal opponent tomorrow will be the defending champion Mark Philippoussis, who survived an umpire's overrule on set point in the first set tie-break to oust Sjeng Schalken. Enqvist sees it as a toss-up: "We play a bit similar with a big serve, like to hit the ball hard from the baseline. We had some tough matches against each other, it's 1-all. I think I have a good chance to beat him and he probably feels the same way."

Lapentti liquidates miffed Moroccan:

Nicolás Lapentti, the eighth seed from Ecuador, moved into his third career Masters Series final with an easy 6-2, 6-0 win over a jaded Hicham Arazi. Arazi seemed so appalled by his own performance in the first set that he appeared to stop trying in the second, and ended up with a horrendous winners to errors ratio of 4/25. A shame, given the talent that the 26-year-old Moroccan posseses, but that's been the story of his career too often.

But Lapentti certainly played better than in his wobbly win over Escudé yesterday, and the Ecuadorean is starting to feel his game and his strength return to where he wants them here, in his third tournament since a bout with sinusitis that started at the Australian Open. The 23-year-old, who describes himself as easy-going off the court but a fighter on it, may soon be joined on the tour by his younger brother, 16-year-old Giovanni, who is doing very well at the junior level and has already played some Davis Cup matches for Ecuador. "He's got all the abilities," said Nicolás when asked to give his assessment of his little brother, "he just needs to work very hard. He's very tall, so he needs to work on his footwork. He needs to start on some Satellites and Challengers. Hopefully we'll have him around in a couple of years."

Corretja upsets Norman:

Lapentti's semifinal opponent will be Alex Corretja, who has rebounded from the miseries we recounted in earlier reports (injuries, allergies and a near-triple bagel against Lleyton Hewitt) to reach an important semifinal. Corretja was a 4-6, 6-2, 6-2 winner over Magnus Norman, who looked great in his earlier matches this week but turned in an error-filled display after winning the first set (46 unforced errors and 19 winners). Norman served like a god today (70 percent), but once the point started he was far too error-prone. This was especially fatal against Corretja, who was steady enough to coax the errors from the Swede's racquet. Corretja served horribly -- finishing at 44 percent, but in the 30 percent range in the first two sets -- but Norman's returns were off and he was unable to capitalize. Corretja's play improved as the match went on, and by the third set he had improved his serve and was finally striking the excellent forehand winners of which we saw so much in his second-round triumph over Pat Rafter.

Davenport wins round one over Hingis:

Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis gave a sort of preview of their singles final today, when they were on opposing teams in a doubles semifinal. Davenport won, which could be an omen if you believe in omens. Paired with Corina Morariu, Lindsay defeated Martina and Martina's victim in today's singles match, Mary Pierce, 3-6, 7-6 (7-5), 6-1. The match was played on court two before an overflow crowd, at the same time as the Corretja-Norman match was being waged in the stadium before a sparse crowd. It should be said that women's doubles has been a popular attraction here, as it provides great entertainment and gives the fans a chance to see the big names in a more intimate setting. In women's tennis, the marquee names like Hingis, Davenport and Pierce usually play doubles as well, unlike many of their male counterparts. But one wonders how much longer this will be the case. Today Hingis said she is going to start skipping the doubles event more often, both to save some physical wear and tear and to allow herself to get away from the tennis site more often. "It really gets to you, on your body.... I love going out there and playing, but always being here, always waiting, that's just not very fun."

Davenport/Morariu will face Kournikova/Zvereva in tomorrow's final, and we will provide a full report on this match.

Woodies shocked by qualifiers:

The shocker in the men's doubles competition came today when the legendary Woodies, Todd Woodbridge and Mark Woodforde, were upended in three sets by the unlikely team of Roger Federer and Dominik Hrbaty, whose doubles record is undistinguished and who came out of qualifying. Several hours after the match we spotted Federer and Hrbaty practicing, and Federer was barefoot! Practicing on hard courts in bare feet? He's nuts!