Wednesday, June 7 2006 14:36 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

Paris: Kim Clijsters agreed with Martina Hingis that life in tennis can be draining as the second-seeded Belgian advanced on Tuesday into the semi-finals of an event where she has twice lost in the final, taking out the Swiss 12th seed 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Clijsters will face fellow Belgian and defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne in the last four after the third seed defeated Germany's Anna-Lena Groenefeld 7-5, 6-2.

Spurred on by a French crowd that seemed mostly behind her, Clijsters raced into a 5-2 first set lead after breaking two of Hingis's first three service games.

But the Swiss Miss, bidding to claim the only Grand Slam title missing from her collection, hit back in fine style to force the tie-break.

But having dragged herself back into contention, Hingis suffered a shattering blow in the tie-break, losing 7/5 and from there the wind seemed to be blown out of her sails.

The two young women Hingis is 25 and back from a three-year retirement while Clijsters looks to be ending her career in 2007 are heading in opposite directions.

But while Clijsters, two days short of her 23rd birthday, contemplates eventually moving onto something else in the near future, Hingis is living in the moment, admitting she ran out of puff in the losing quarter-final.

"Today I just didn't feel a 100 percent physically from the last three days," said Hingis. "When I played my first matches, I was just hoping to stay healthy," she said.

"That's probably the biggest reason, part of the reason why it's difficult to stay focused and intense over two weeks in a Grand Slam," she said.

"There were long days here at Roland Garros. She's not an opponent you can just walk on court and think she's going to give it to you," she said.

"You have to be full on. If you're not, you're going to lose. That's what happened today," she said.

Clijsters concurred, saying that the modern version of the game takes a huge physical toll on players at younger and younger ages.

"The tennis career is not like a usual job, it's a short career," she said.

"Over the years, I think that's what Martina started to feel. It's become a lot more demanding on the body," she said.

The Belgian is now one step away from reaching her third Paris final.

Three years ago when she reached the final only to be beaten by Henin-Hardene, and in 2001 she finished runner-up to American Jennifer Capriati.

She will also be spurred on by the added motivation that she can regain the world number one spot from France's Amelie Mauresmo if she does reach the final here.

But for both players the toil of the professional game means it is getting harder and harder just to make it onto court.

Clijsters says it was the Williams sisters in the late 1990s who raised the bar.

"They were, to me, the best athletes when they came on the tour. They made us train harder, become more powerful, move better. We had to work a lot harder to get to where they were," she said.

Clijsters has announced that she will step away from the game sometime next year. But she refuses to be pinned down.

"I've had to deal with a lot of (recent) injuries. They've been very frustrating because I haven't been able to play for a long time the level that I wanted to," she said.

"Since (winning) the US Open, I don't think I've ever felt as good.

"I know how good I can feel on the court. You work every day, you try to create that feeling again," she said.

"After a while, you start to realise that your body is not the same any more as what it was. You need to make decisions for yourself," she said.