Tennis: French Open

Monica Seles defeated the world No.1, Martina Hingis, for the first time in six attempts, winning their French Open semi-final 6-3, 6-2 to reach her fourth final at Roland Garros.

The last time the American had gone so far in the tournament was in 1992, when she won her third consecutive title in Paris. Since then, the No.6 seed has been through hard times, not playing in Paris for three years after having been stabbed by a Steffi Graf fan in Hamburg on April 30, 1993.

She entered her seventh French Open still upset by the recent death of her father. ''These past few weeks have not been the happiest in my life,'' said Seles. ''It is nice to see a little bit of sunshine after so many clouds.''

Hingis had won all five of their previous encounters - all since to the 1993 incident - and was especially motivated as this was the only Grand Slam she has yet to win. However, Hingis had no answer to Seles' ground-stroke excellence.

''She did not make any mistakes. I did not get any chance to come back into the match,'' said Hingis, who admitted feeling tired after having beaten American Venus Williams in the previous round.

''She surprised everybody. She has been around for quite a while, she did not play for like four years, and now she is back in great shape, probably better than ever,'' Hingis added.

Seles now plays No.4 seed Arantxa Sanchez Vicario tomorrow in a rematch of the 1991 final. The Spaniard dismissed American second seed Lindsay Davenport 6-3, 7-6. The final also will mark the revenge of the older generation on the up-and-coming teenagers who had been stealing the show since the start of the tournament.

Meanwhile, Cedric Pioline will try to stem the Spanish tide today as he bids to become only the fourth Frenchman in 30 years to reach the final on home clay.

Pioline meets Alex Corretja in his semi-final and remains the only non-Spaniard left in the last four. The other semi-final is an all-Spanish clash between Carlos Moya and Felix Mantilla.

A lot is at stake for Pioline. Since the beginning of the Open era in 1968, only three Frenchmen have made it to the final and only one, Yannick Noah 15 years ago, won the tournament.

Patrick Proisy, in 1972, and Henri Leconte, in 1988 both lost in the final.

The Parisian, the highest unseeded player in the men's draw at No.17 in the world rankings, could also become only the fourth unseeded player to win here. However, before contemplating such a feat, Pioline must beat the Corretja, one of the game's great fighters. Judged on the tournament so far, it should be a long match.

Pioline has played three five-setters of more than three hours, starting with Uruguay's Mar-celo Filippini in the first round, and then against Russian Marat Safin and Morocco's Hicham Arazi in the last two.

As for Corretja, he broke the record for the longest known match at the French Open this year.

The two have met three times and Corretja won twice, both times on clay. ''I'll be hard to beat,'' said the Spaniard, not at all surprised to see three of his compatriots in the last four here.

''Actually, there should have been four of us. Alberto Berasategui should have been here,'' he said of his injured compatriot.

Mantilla was the best player on clay last season with five tournament wins and 42 match victories, but he crashed in the second round in Paris. Moya never did better than the second round in his two previous attempts but he is somewhat different to the other Spaniards. ''I don't consider myself a clay-court specialist,'' he said. ''But I play well on clay, that's for sure.''