Pierce and Hingis storm on

A dogged resilience typified Mary Pierce and Martina Hingis as they cheerily rode out the constant drizzle which engulfed Paris yesterday to finish off their doubles match against Jennifer Capriati and Elena Dokic.

While the men were running for cover from Court Central and Suzzane Lenglen, Hingis and Pierce, who both play today in the quarter-final stages of the women's singles, stoically faced the murky weather for a 6-3, 6-2 win.

The game is sure to bring Pierce on another notch as she appears to be getting stronger after every game. It's hard to argue with her assessment of "I'm really pleased because I feel I'm getting better and better with each match."

Injudicious or not, it was Monica Seles who said after her win over Amelie Mauresmo that, in hindsight, her decision not to enter the doubles was wise.

When she opened the curtains of her well-appointed hotel suite this morning she will have blessed the moment she came to that conclusion.

Seles advanced on Sunday to meet Pierce in the quarter-final and revealed after the match that she has been unwell and is on a course of antibiotics for bronchitis and sinus trouble.

"I wish I didn't have to be on antibiotics right now," she said. "All this medication. Unfortunately that's what the doctor felt was best so that it wouldn't spread. "That's what happens to you when you live in Florida, your immune system gets down," she added, echoing the complaints of many players about the unseasonally cold belt of weather which followed sauna-like humidity earlier in the week.

Seles' match against Pierce is the match-up of the round, the winner likely to meet number one seed Martina Hingis, who faces the unseeded American Chanda Rubin. While Pierce's game is strong, the same cannot be said for her standing with the French public.

Pierce, like Hingis, has an unusual relationship with the crowd, the Swiss teenager now drawing open hostility and 25-year-old Pierce still unsure whether they are with her or against her.

After defeating Asa Carlsson, once again without dropping a set, Pierce was asked whether she felt the crowd would support her if she was not playing well.

"It's true that I'm playing well and the public likes that, but I'm not sure if I hadn't played so well they wouldn't have reacted in the same way. It would be interesting to know that," she said.

Indeed it would and maybe we will. The less charitable have suggested that the French-Canadian player is simply trying to take a piece of the action of "born again" Michael Chang's principle sponsor. Having felt "interior feelings" since finding god earlier this year, the question is whether this new association will enhance her chances against a drugged Seles. In the lower half of the draw there are no such complications.

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario carries everyone with a rumbling, tumbling style that has her a regular visitor to the side-court photographer's pit. Like Seles, the Spaniard, who is in her 14th straight visit to Paris, has won here three times. Sanchez-Vicario, along with Conchita Martinez, seeded fifth, and unseeded Marta Marrero are the three remaining Spanish players from the eight player Armada which set sail at the beginning of the tournament.

Because they are all in the bottom half of the draw, one will definitely make the semi-final. But in Venus Williams, Sanchez-Vicario not only faces perhaps the strongest female player in the competition but one who, at 19, is almost ten years younger.

After six months off because of tendonitis in her wrists, Williams is not in top shape but she's getting closer each round.

"My wrist is feeling good. It's not holding me back at all," she said after beating Anke Huber. And that's how it looks as Hingis, Seles, Williams and Martinez look in shape for the final four.