MELBOURNE, Australia -- Venus Williams was happy just to survive three rounds of the Australian Open. Martina Hingis was upset that she conceded a game.

	Venus Williams felt at full strength in 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 victory over Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia.

The second-seeded Williams dropped the first set Friday before winning eight straight games for a 3-6, 6-0, 6-4 win over No. 32 Daniel Hantuchova.

"I wasn't really afraid," said Williams, who struggled with a knee injury in her second-round win over Kristina Brandi. "You always go into a match a little nervous after having a scare. But I found that I could do a lot more than I did the other day, so it was exciting.

"I'm not used to being behind, but I can cope with it."

Williams extended her winning streak to 23 matches.

Hingis, seeded third, had two set points at 5-0 in the first before Barbara Rittner held serve. Then Hingis won the next seven games to finish a 6-1, 6-0 victory in 46 minutes.

Hingis, coming back last week after three months on the sidelines following ankle surgery, defended her adidas International title in Sydney. She's going for her sixth consecutive Australian Open final.

"They almost counted me out, but I'm still in the game," she said. "I'm still holding strong."

The ankle is giving her no problems at all.

"I feel very good running around," said Hingis, who won three Australian titles from 1997-99. "I played very well, very focused."

Williams is treating her injury with rest and ice. The two-time U.S. Open and Wimbledon champion said her slow start was a symptom of recurring tendinitis in her left knee.

"Ice is my best friend," she said.

Venus' sister, Serena Williams, withdrew before the tournament with an ankle injury. Lindsay Davenport, who finished 2001 at No. 1, isn't here because of a knee injury.

Hantuchova mixed forehands into the corners with subtle drop shots to work Williams around the court.

The 18-year-old Slovakian won the first set, but her tactics backfired when Williams got her serve working and produced a succession of winners on her return.

After her slow start, Williams sprinted to the net and turned Hantuchova's drop shots against her.

"She hit a few drop shots that I didn't run for at first, but then there were a few toward the end that I did very well on," Williams said.

After failing to win a game in the second, Hantuchova broke back twice to level at 4-4 in the third set. Williams went ahead 5-4 and, serving for the match, she fired a second-service ace, a double-fisted backhand down the line and then clinched it when her rival netted a forehand return.

Williams, who lost in the Australian semifinals last year to Hingis, remained on course for a quarterfinal showdown with No. 8 Monica Seles, a four-time Australian Open champ.

Seles also overcame a slow start against Francesca Schiavone to win 6-4, 6-4 on center court.

In a match punctuated by each player's screeching on almost every shot, Seles lost her serve in the first game of each set but then turned up the power. Seles lost to Schiavone in the Hopman Cup two weeks ago.

"I started off pretty weak," said Seles, the four-time champion who is seeded eighth. "I was anxious to play her. She runs down every ball."

Although slowed by a problem with her right foot, Seles did some scrambling of her own on her way to breaking for 4-2 in the second set. She ran wide for a backhand, then up to the net for a short volley, and put away a sharply angled backhand crosscourt.

Serving for the match at 5-3, Seles pressed too hard and lost the game on errors. Then she won four consecutive points in the final game.

Seles last won the Australian in 1996 -- the only one of her nine Grand Slam titles after she was stabbed at a tournament in Germany in 1993 and missed two years.

In other women's matches, Adriana Serra Zanetti beat 11th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia 6-2, 4-6, 6-4; 13th-seeded Magdalena Maleeva beat No. 18 Lisa Raymond 7-5, 6-1; Martina Sucha defeated Asa Svensson 6-0, 6-4; and No. 15 Amanda Coetzer beat No. 17 Barbara Schett 6-3, 6-3.

Reuters News Service contributed to this report.