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Three seeds crushed at US Open

World No. 1 Martina Hingis was forced to suffer some of the indignities usually reserved for lesser players at the U.S. Open but the end result was another straight sets win.

The Swiss teenager smiled through a 6-3, 6-1 third-round demolition of German qualifier Sandra Kloesel yesterday, but only after being made to wait for Tommy Haas to finish his marathon match and trudging across the sprawling tennis centre to the old stadium.

''You get a warm-up by just walking down there,'' Hingis said after being pushed off the tournament's main stage for the first time this year.

Hingis was not happy about waiting around while the men's 14th seed turned a potential easy win into a three-hour, five-set marathon.

''We were already ready to go on court, then fourth set, fifth set,'' said Hingis by way of explaining how she managed to lose all of three games in the first set. ''Then in the second set I was getting better.''

Haas may have made life difficult for himself and Hingis before pulling out a 6-3, 6-2, 2-6, 6-7, 6-1 second-round victory over Argentine Mariano Puerta, but at least he came through on a day that saw three seeded players bite the dust.

The women lost eighth-seeded former Wimbledon champion Jana Novotna and 13th seed Dominique Van Roost of Belgium.

Novotna, who has never fully recovered from an ankle injury she sustained at the French Open, fell 6-3, 6-2 to former top-10 player Anke Huber of Germany.

''I'm not the same player I was before the injury,'' said Novotna, who admitted to rushing back too soon to defend her Wimbledon crown. ''My movement is not the same, no matter how much I'm trying.''

Van Roost was bounced 7-5, 6-0 by seasoned veteran Mary Joe Fernandez, a two-time Open semi-finalist who conceded just seven points in the second set.

On the men's side, 16th seed Nicolas Lapentti of Ecuador was picked off by elated 148th-ranked Swedish qualifier Fredrik Jonsson 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 7-5.

''He was the one that went for his shots. He was more aggressive. I was under pressure all the time. I'm very disappointed with the way things went today,'' said Lapentti, whose ranking skyrocketed from 92nd to 16th this year.

Lapentti, seeded for the first time at a Grand Slam after winning Indianapolis last month, had figured to make it to the quarter-finals after potential fourth-round opponent Pete Sampras withdrew with a back injury.

That leaves seventh seed Todd Martin and ninth seed Greg Rusedski as the only seeds in the top quarter of the draw and the two appear to be on a fourth-round collision course after posting comfortable second-round wins yesterday.

Martin came through with a big finish for a 6-4, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 win over sometimes U.S. Davis Cup teammate Richey Reneberg.

Mark Woodforde, a 16-year tour veteran and a Davis Cup doubles stalwart, is not easily flustered on a tennis court, but the 33-year-old Australian was rattled by a freak point against him yesterday that helped lead to his elimination.

''I'm just very frustrated and very disappointed that I end up losing that,'' Woodforde said after his 3-6, 7-5, 7-6, 7-6 defeat to 21-year-old Dutchman Peter Wessels.

The Australian, up a service break in every game of the second-round match, took out some of his frustration on his racquet in the final set, throwing it down and then bouncing it off the hard court until the frame was mangled before giving it a good kick.

Woodforde unravelled after a bizarre point in his third-set tiebreaker against the 115th-ranked Wessels, in which an errant shot from the Dutchman struck Woodforde in the foot when the Australian was beyond the baseline.

Instead of going ahead 5-3 in the tie-break after a long and wrong shot from Wessel, Woodforde found himself tied 4-4 and badly distracted.

The strange point against followed two points after an apparent ace by Woodforde was overruled by the umpire. Wessels, who had started to walk away in acknowledgment of the ace, won the play-over point for another two-point swing in the tie-break he eventually won 10-8.

''I've never had this happen before where I've been hit beyond the baseline,'' Woodforde said in wonderment after the three-hour match. ''I mean, can't get any bloody luckier than that for him. I was pretty pissed off at that stage.''

Woodforde said he would try not to let this bad singles experience deter him should he be drafted into action for singles in Australia's upcoming Davis Cup home semi-final against Russia.

''I'd rather not,'' the red-headed lefthander said about possibly playing in place of Patrick Rafter (shoulder) or Mark Philippoussis (ankle) -- two players knocked out of the U.S. Open by injury.

''But I'd never turn around to Newc (captain John Nnewcombe) or Rochey (assistant Ken Roche) and say, 'you can't play me in singles,''' he added in a jab at Pete Sampras, who ruled himself out of singles in the U.S. team's 4-1 quarter-final home loss to Australia.

UNI