NEW YORK -- Monica Seles, grunting in a higher register than we have grown accustomed to, swings from her heels along the baseline and the ball, well, it seems, somehow ... too big, in an Alice-in-Wonderland sort of way.

	Monica Seles played well, Martina Hingis said, but maybe not well enough to beat Venus Williams.

On the other side of the net, Jennifer Capriati, auburn pony tails bouncing out of control, is impossibly cherubic and, at the same time, utterly fearless. You see the bright eyes, the innocence, and you find yourself wishing you could warn her away from the travails that will follow.

The funny thing? They are hitting absolute bombs.

That is the way they were, some 11 years ago, in the 1991 U.S. Open semifinals; Seles was still 17 and Capriati a stripling of 15. On Monday, during the seven-hour rain delay at the National Tennis Center, CBS television replayed the match.

It was eerie and, in retrospect, a historic moment.

"One of the best matches, I think, in women's tennis," Seles said proudly on Tuesday. "One of the first matches that the ball was hit hard."

Seles said she debated whether or not to watch, but ultimately couldn't help herself.

"I could see some of my family members, hers," Seles said. "They were more nervous than we were. I think we're so young and we just wanted to crush every ball out there, that's how we were playing. No matter 30-all, Love-40, we were going for our shots.

"It was great to see that."

Seles was smiling when she said it, but there was a tinge of nostalgia in her answer. She was speaking in the past tense, which she knows is where her greatest tennis will always live.

Before Seles-Capriati, as Tracy Austin pointed out on Tuesday, women were content to push the ball back across the net in an effort to prolong the point. These young girls, however, were aggressive, going for it on every shot. Their goal was not to prolong the point, but to end it.

This, of course, is what women's tennis has become -- a slightly less toxic version of the men's electric, blurring pinball-carom game. Today's top contenders -- Venus and Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Capriati -- all hit the ball hard, all the time.

"You [had] more time to think where you're going to hit it," Martina Hingis said on Tuesday. "Today, you have to react so fast. Sometimes it's like, 'OK, wait a minute, I need to think where I'm going to hit the next shot.' Sometimes you just got to hit it back fast, that is what is the difference."

Hingis knows of what she speaks. On Tuesday afternoon, she spent a lot of time wishing she had more of it. Seles unstrung her 6-4, 6-2 in a Round of 16 match that consumed only 71 minutes.

It was a battle of two world-weary athletes who were meeting for the 20th time as professionals. Seles has played professional tennis for 13 of her 28 years, not including 1994 when she took a sabbatical after the fateful stabbing incident in Hamburg. Hingis, 21, has played for nine seasons.

Both have struggled, mentally and physically over the years. Hingis had won 15 of the 19 matches they had played previously, but on Tuesday, it was she who looked older and overpowered.

The dizzying blur of matches -- well over 500 already -- has exacted a toll from Hingis' body. She tore three ligaments in her right ankle late in 2001 and underwent surgery. After surgery on her left ankle (ligaments, again), Hingis missed more than three months on the WTA Tour. She played two warm-up events, but it didn't prepare her for Seles' still stout groundstrokes.

"She always hits it with high risk," said Hingis, who was once the world's top player but was seeded No. 9 here. "Monica played well. I have to give credit. I felt pretty good starting to play tournaments. Obviously, it will take time to recover 100 percent physically. Mentally, you're also a little weaker."

Seles, the No. 6 seed, recognized this immediately and, when she jumped on a short ball from Hingis on the sixth point of the match, her backhand winner down the line gave her the first service break. Translation: Nothing will come easy today.

And it didn't. Seles feasted on Hingis' weak serves and hit three times as many winners. The next match, versus No. 2 seed Venus Williams in Wednesday's quarterfinals, will not be so easy. Hingis, for one, sounded skeptical about Seles' chances.

"Venus has a better serve, you know, moves, hits more winners and everything. I mean, she beat her in Australia ... but Venus has gotten better since then.

"I don't know. I mean, you can't compare my game right now to Venus'. That's a good question."

While Seles did in fact defeat Williams in the Australian Open quarterfinals, Williams clearly was not adequately prepared. After Tuesday's near flameout against Chanda Rubin, you get the impression Williams will not be surprised; an hour after her match, she was out on the practice court, working on her faulty forehand.

A loss to Williams will invoke the predictable retirement questions for Seles.

"I've seen it with Agassi, and I've see it with Pete," Seles said. "I think with past years of my career, I felt it's been a question every time.

"I think it all depends because we start the game so young, how long we want to stay so focused. You have to have a very focused life-style, really. In tennis, you have no off-season. How long are you willing to sacrifice that stuff?"

Seles admitted that "outside distractions" have invaded her tennis cocoon. In other words, she has a life. Perhaps this is why the last of her Grand Slam singles titles came -- "Ninety-six, January," she said promptly, when asked -- why she seems content to reach quarterfinals and semifinals when, previously, nothing but winning was acceptable.

On Tuesday, she joked that she would play club tennis for the rest of her life, albeit right-handed, just to be fair.

Seles, who watched the 1991 semifinal from her hotel room, had never seen a tape of the match. Although Capriati came within two points of winning the match, Seles prevailed in a third-set tie-breaker.

"I was very good," she said, laughing. "It brought back some great memories. I was giving myself a hard time now. I mean, obviously some things were very different than now."

And what about the blousy, so-'90s tennis dress and that frightening short, frosted perm?

"Ayyagghhh!" Seles said, rising from her interview chair, making a face and giving the thumbs-down sign.

And at that moment you got the idea that Monica Seles is quite happy, thank you, living in the present.

Greg Garber is a senior writer for ESPN.com.