Tennis: Ivanisevic rushes to last four

Goran Ivanisevic is not wasting any time in Moscow. On Thursday he was on court for 36 minutes in his win over Switzerland's Jakob Hlasek and yesterday the Croat took just 56 minutes to defeat Petr Korda of the Czech Republic 7-5, 6-0 and advance to the semi- finals of the Kremlin Cup.

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the tournament's home-town favourite and the top seed, defeated Byron Black of Zimbabwe 7-6, 6-2 and will now meet the Germany David Prinosil in today's semi-finals while Ivanisevic will play Alex O'Brien of the United States.

The Swiss teenager Martina Hingis stayed on course for a first meeting with Monica Seles in Sunday's final but said she was disappointed with her game as she reached the semi-finals of the Bank of the West Classic in Oakland, California.

Hingis, the third seed, beat Linda Wild 6-3, 6-2 in just 58 minutes, setting up a semi-final today against either the second-seeded American, Lindsay Davenport, or the fifth seed, Brenda Schultz-McCarthy of the Netherlands. Hingis, 16, has defeated eight players in the top 10 this year.

"It was such a bad match," said Hingis, ranked seventh in the world. "It was not very interesting... I was angry and disappointed that I couldn't make the shots I wanted."

The Russian Elena Likhovtseva surprised the fourth seed, Mary Joe Fernandez, 6-3, 6-1, and the Romanian Irina Spirlea beat Paola Suarez, of Argentina, 6-2, 6-1.