American trio march confidently into next round

ANDRE AGASSI, Andy Roddick and Lindsay Davenport kept the stars and stripes flying high above Melbourne Park yesterday with a trio of sizzling performances in the Australian Open fourth round.

Defending champion Agassi blazed a trail into the quarter-finals, blasting away Thailand's Paradorn Srichaphan 7-6 6-3 6-4.

He was swiftly joined by top seed Andy Roddick who made beating Dutchman Sjeng Schalken look easy triumphing 6-1 6-2 6-3.

Women's fifth seed Davenport was just as emphatic, beating 11th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1 6-3, a thrashing that left the Russian in tears. Davenport will play Justine Henin-Hardenne next after the top seed remained on track for a first Australian Open crown with an economical 6-1 7-6 defeat of unorthodox Italian Mara Santangelo.

France's fourth seed Amelie Mauresmo also advanced, made to fight all the way before beating brave local hope Alicia Molik 7-5 7-5.

Agassi recovered from an early loss of serve to win the first set against Paradorn and never looked back.

He now meets Sebastien Grosjean for a place in the semis after the Frenchman beat American Robby Ginepri 6-4 3-6 6-4 6-1.

Roddick followed Agassi on to Rod Laver Arena centre court and took just 79 minutes to wipe Schalken.

Roddick will next face former world number one Marat Safin after the Russian overpowered American James Blake 7-6 6-3 6-7 6-3.

The match featured a spectacular shot from Safin to break Blake a final time when the Russian appeared to throw the racket at the ball an illegal shot.

Blake refused to blame that for the defeat. Safin said: "It was just pure luck, 100%. I think I just threw it. I don't know how it happened."

Whether the racket was in his hand when the ball was struck or not was too close to call for the umpire to make and the break stood.

The fierce-hitting Russian, who has slipped to 86th in the world after an injury-plagued 2003, was a finalist here in 2002 and was the 2000 US Open champion. Tuesday's match with Roddick falls on Safin's 24th birthday.

Henin-Hardenne's far from emphatic win over little-known qualifier Santangelo lines her up for a tough last-eight showdown with Davenport, the only former champion still in the draw.

The Belgian, holder of the French and US Open titles, is a strong favourite to win her first Australian Open but did not have things all her own way against an opponent ranked 129th in the world.

Henin-Hardenne will have to be in much better form against 2000 champion Davenport. On Sunday the American's heavy-hitting overpowered 19-year-old Zvonareva from the start. Such was Davenport's dominance that the match lasted just 47 minutes.

"I've had a lot of tough matches with her in the past and I really didn't expect it to be like that," said Davenport who showed no sign of the foot injury which hampered her last year.

Mauresmo, a finalist at Melbourne Park in 1999, was made to work for every point in her fourth round match before finally putting down Molik's challenge.

"She gave me a lot of problems. You guys must be a little disappointed," Mauresmo told the crowd.

"But I just really wanted to get through this one and get to the quarters," she said.

Mauresmo will play 32nd seed Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia for a place in the semis.