Gagliardi and Hingis into last eight

Gagliardi kept her eye on the ball in Indian Wells Keystone Archive

Switzerland's Martina Hingis and Emmanuelle Gagliardi have both reached the quarter-finals of the prestigious Indian Wells tournament in California.

World number four Martina Hingis booked her place in the last eight by beating Zimbabwe’s Cara Black 6-0, 6-3. The Swiss star got off to a great start, winning the first seven games, before going on to wrap up a comfortable victory in just 56 minutes.

Hingis, who is now due to face South Africa’s Amanda Coetzer, is the top remaining seed at the $2.1 million tournament following the early elimination of Belgian number one seed Kim Clijsters.

With fellow Belgian and tournament third seed Justine Henin also crashing out in the fourth round, Hingis seems to have a good chance of repeating her 1998 title win.

Hard work for Gagliardi

Emmanuelle Gagliardi, on the other hand, will be relieved merely to have reached the quarter-finals after her previous disappointments this season.

The Swiss number three certainly had to work hard to make it into the last eight, needing three sets to overcome Russia’s Anastasia Myskina – a player currently 31 world ranking places above Gagliardi.

Unlike Hingis, Gagliardi made a terrible start to her match – losing the first set 1-6, before falling 0-4 behind in the second.

The 25-year-old Genevan then rallied impressively though, clawing her way back into contention before saving a match point and then taking the second set on a tie-break.

The third set was almost a repeat of the second, with the Swiss having to fight back to keep her chances alive. With the game going into another tiebreak, both players could have earned their ticket for the quarter-finals, with Myskina at one stage holding match points. Gagliardi’s nerves held out however for a surprise victory.

Gagliardi has now passed four rounds of a WTA tournament for the first time since February 2000. In the quarter-finals she is set to meet Israel’s Anna Smashnova, a player she has only beaten once in four attempts.

swissinfo with agencies