It Gets Milder but Moya Stays Hot

MELBOURNE, Australia — Goodbye sun, hello air conditioning.

Protected from the searing sun and dry, desert-like winds, unseeded Carlos Moya surged into the semifinals of the Australian Open in the first match ever played with the roof closed because of heat.

Moya, conqueror of defending champion Boris Becker in the first round, beat Spanish compatriot Felix Mantilla, 7-5, 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 6-2, Tuesday in the mid-70s comfort beneath the retractable roof.

“I’m going to be playing anyway. If it’s snowing, raining, 60 degrees [Celsius], I don’t care,” Moya said.

Moya ventured to the net 42 times, twice as often as the No. 14 Mantilla, and won two-thirds of those approaches. He also smacked 12 aces, twice as many as Mantilla, in the 2 1/2-hour match.

Indoor play continued with South African Amanda Coetzer, a victor over Steffi Graf, moving into the semifinals with a 6-4, 6-1 romp past American Kimberly Po.

The No. 12 Coetzer, a semifinalist here last year in her previous best Grand Slam performance since turning pro in 1988, next plays the winner of the Mary Pierce-Sabine Appelmans match.

With the temperature outside soaring past 100 degrees in the shade for the third consecutive day, and temperatures on the rubberized hard courts likely to top 140 degrees again, referee Peter Bellenger ordered the roof closed.

A power failure in the Melbourne Park area interrupted play for about half an hour Monday night in the Thomas Muster-Jim Courier match.

Muster, seeded No. 5, led 3-0 in the first set when the lights flickered off, and when they returned he proceeded to a 6-2, 3-6, 7-6 (7-4), 6-3 victory despite treatment by a trainer for a toe blister and numbness in his left hand.

Also Monday night, Martina Hingis continued in her quest to become the youngest Grand Slam champion this century. The No. 4 Hingis is the highest seeded woman to reach the quarterfinals after defeating Ruxandra Dragomir of Romania, 7-6 (8-6), 6-1.