KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. -- Martina Hingis plopped in a chair. Her day's work, after 44 minutes, was done.

With each passing round at the Lipton Championships, Hingis has improved her play and shortened her matches. Yesterday, she wiped poor Barbara Schett, the No. 20 player in the world, off the court, 6-1, 6-1, and then made plans for a run and a massage at 4 p.m.

"It is the perfect match, the perfect warm-up for my next round," Hingis said after advancing to the semifinals, where she will meet No. 16 Serena Williams.

Williams, who beat No. 9 Amanda Coetzer, 6-4, 6-0, last night, has won 15 consecutive matches. And her meeting with Hingis will be a rematch of a Lipton quarterfinal last year. In that match, Williams held two match points on Hingis, but couldn't break through.

But rematches don't always go the way it appears they might. And rankings sometimes mean nothing.

Schett, for instance, lost to Hingis in a three-set tiebreaker only three months ago in Sydney, Australia, just before the Australian Open. And though that match gave her the confidence to think, "I'm going to beat her," as she walked onto the court, it wasn't enough even to keep her in the game.

"Maybe I wanted it too much," she said. "But I never found my rhythm and my serve was especially bad. Without a serve you can't beat the No. 1."

And, last night, by ranking and seeding, it was Coetzer who should have been the favorite, but Williams is now the hottest player on the women's tour. She won her first career title in Paris, Feb. 28, and hasn't lost since. Her 15-match streak after winning her break-through tournament is second only to the 20 matches Steffi Graf won after her first title at Hilton Head in 1986.

Here at The Lipton, anything can happen and often does. Just look at the men's draw. No. 7 and past Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek is the only player left who has ever won a major tournament. He and his semifinal opponent, No. 14 Thomas Enqvist, who play today, are the only ones left who anyone short of a tennis insider has heard of.

Yesterday, No. 74 Sebastien Grosjean defeated No. 40 Dominik Hrbaty, 6-3, 5-7, 6-1, to advance to the other semifinal and will play No. 22 Francisco Clavet, a 7-5, 6-3 winner over No. 30 Nicolas Kiefer.

Still, as erratic as the men's tournament has been, the women have been consistency itself. Only three of the top 10 seeds had lost going into last night's second quarterfinal match.

Williams and Schett were the only two non-Top 10 players in the final eight.

"I think it is a difficult question," said Schett, when asked whom she thinks will win the tournament. "I think Martina has definitely a very good chance, but there is Lindsay [Davenport] and Serena and Venus [Williams] and Steffi [Graf], so I really -- it's hard to say."

Which is saying quite a lot, really. Up until just three years ago, you could be sure of the winners -- Graf, Monica Seles or Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario won almost every big event. That's changed.

And it's a situation that, no doubt, has Fox Sports executives beaming. Because of scheduling constraints, Fox persuaded Lipton officials to flip the men's and women's finals in this tournament.

This is believed to be the first time, at any major tennis event, that the men's championship will be played on Saturday afternoon, while the women play in the more desirable Sunday spot alone. At the U.S. Open, the men's and women's titles are both decided on the second Sunday.

"The women are really focusing on this tournament," said Hingis, happy to be the first to advance to the semifinals. "Lindsay is really into the singles. There are like only 150 points between us. She is trying to get back to No. 1, while I'm trying to keep it. Venus is fresh. Serena just won her last two events. Steffi made her last final.

"Whoever it is in the finals, it is going to be a good match, I think."

And as for her matches, which have averaged less than 50 minutes, she said: "I think the longer the tournament is, the better it is that you keep your match short so you still have enough energy to keep going. You could see Barbara today, that she had three tough matches and I was always one point better and quicker."

Pub Date: 3/25/99