Pierce, Seles, Davenport advance in Big Apple

New York, NY (TSN) – Top-ranked Lindsay Davenport, fifth seed Monica Seles and sixth-seeded Mary Pierce all won on Wednesday to advance to the quarterfinals of the $2,000,000 Chase Championships in Madison Square Garden.

Davenport dropped the first set but rallied to overcome a perky Sandrine Testud, 4-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-0. The world’s number-one player, who was two points away from defeat, will take on eighth-seeded Nathalie Tauziat in the next round.

Seles, who moved up to the fifth ranking when Venus Williams dropped out of the tournament with a knee injury, dispatched Russia’s Anna Kournikova in straight sets, 6-4, 6-3. Kournikova, making her Championships debut, double-faulted 16 times and had trouble getting her game together. Seles, a three-time champion at this event, will face Steffi Graf in the quarterfinals. Graf, who has won 11 straight matches since returning from wrist surgery earlier this month, moved on with a win over third-seeded Jana Novotna on Tuesday.

Pierce dominated Amanda Coetzer, 6-1, 6-0, to earn a date with number-two Martina Hingis in the quarters. Pierce simply overpowered the much smaller Coetzer with huge groundstrokes and devastating serves. In all, the 5-foot-2 Coetzer won only 26 points for the match.

The final quarters matchup pits Dominique Van Roost against Irina Spirlea in a meeting of unseeded players.