World number one Martina Hingis Entered the quarter-finals of the WTA Tour Chase Championships here Tuesday after beating France's Sandrine Testud 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-5) in the opening round.

The Swiss teenager, who took the court after a tribute to now- retired Steffi Graf, seemed in control after winning the first-set tiebreak and breaking Testud in the opening game of the second set. But Testud managed to save a break point in the third game and broke Hingis in the fourth game.

Testud took a 2-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but two straight backhand errors off her serve allowed Hingis to take a 3-2 lead.

Hingis built a 5-4 lead when Testud missed a backhand wide in the open court and was serving to close the match, but Testud hit a lunging forehand down the line to draw even.

However, a netted backhand by Testud gave Hingis match point at 6-5 and she closed out her sixth straight win over Testud when the Frenchwoman hit a forehand long for her 32nd unforced error of the match.

Dominique Van Roost of Belgium spent just over an hour to defeat Elena Likhovtseva of Russia 6-2, 6-3.

Van Roost advanced to a meeting with sixth seed Nathalie Tauziat of France, who posted a comfortable 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over South African Amanda Coetzer.

Sixth seed Nathalie Tauziat moved into the quarter-finals of the season-ending Chase Championships with a 6-3, 7-6 (8-6) victory over Amanda Coetzer of South Africa in New York on Tuesday.

The tribute for the German icon takes place between a pair of first round matches in which fourth-seeded US Open champion Serena Williams was scheduled to take on Dominique Van Roost of Belgium and top seed Martina Hingis begins her title defense against Sandrine Testud of France.

Tauziat now face Van Roost, who took a walkover when Serena withdrew from the match for a back injury in the quarterfinals.

Tauziat reached the semi-finals here in 1997, her first Grand Slam final at Wimbledon in 1998 and capturing a pair of titles in recent weeks in Moscow and Leipzig after celebrating her 32nd birthday in October to reach a career-high ranking of seventh in the world.