Red-Hot Hingis Tops Huber In Paris For 4th Straight

Martina Hingis, closing in on Steffi Graf’s No. 1 ranking, won her fourth consecutive tournament Sunday when she defeated Anke Huber 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 in the Paris Women’s Open to remain unbeaten for the year.

The 16-year-old Swiss star has won all 18 of her matches in 1997.

In the singles final, two double faults and two unforced errors by Huber in the eighth game of the third set proved decisive. That gave Hingis a 5-3 lead and the top seed then held serve, ending the match in 1 hour, 52 minutes.

She has won five of her last six tournaments, her only loss coming to Graf in the WTA championships final in the fifth set.

Pete Sampras successfully defended his title in the Sybase Open in San Jose, Calif., when hard-serving Greg Rusedski was forced to retire because of a wrist injury.

Sampras dropped the first set 6-3, but came back with two service breaks and led 5-0 in the second when the British Rusedski, down 0-30, shook his head, approached the net and held out his hand to Sampras.

In France, Thomas Enqvist of Sweden won the Marseille Open when Marcelo Rios of Chile was forced to quit in the second set with a strained left thigh muscle. Enqvist was leading 6-4, 1-0 when Rios had to quit.

Second-seeded Thomas Muster overwhelmed defending champion Goran Ivanisevic with a series of sizzling shots to win his first $1 million Dubai Open in the United Arab Emirates. The Austrian, ranked third in the world behind Ivanisevic, won 7-5, 7-6 (7-3) in 1 hour, 41 minutes.