Big guns handle the heat

The big guns in the women’s singles did not wilt in the heat on day six of the Australian Open.

Amelie Mauresmo, Kim Clijsters, Martina Hingis, Anastasia Myskina and Patty Schnyder all made convincing progress at Melbourne Park – as did local Sam Stosur.

French third seed Mauresmo was only on court for 30 minutes after Michaella Krajicek retired hurt.

Mauresmo raced to a 4-0 lead and took the first set 6-2 before 17-year-old Krajicek called for the trainer and soon after conceded defeat.

Russian 12th seed Myskina overcame Sweden’s Sofia Arvidsson in a scrappy affair, the pair committing more than 60 unforced errors between them in only an hour of tennis.

Myskina claimed the first set before racing to a 5-0 love lead in the second on the way to eventually closing out the match 6-3 6-1.

Australia’s great hope Stosur continued her solid form to win through to her first-ever fourth round singles appearance at a Grand Slam – defeating Austrian Sybille Bammer 7-5 4-6 6-3.

Though she was not at her best in a match which saw the pair trade plenty of breaks of serve, Stosur will now meet former world number one Hingis in a much-anticipated match after the Swiss Miss continued her stellar comeback to the game.

Hingis beat Czech Iveta Benesova 6-4 6-1, and has now dropped only 10 games in the tournament.

Italian Francesca Schiavone had the easiest victory of the day, the 15th seed crushing Spain’s Maria Sanchez Lorenzo 6-0 6-0 in only 42 minutes.

Clijsters brushed aside her opponent – Italian Roberta Vinci – and her injury worries to win 6-1 6-2.

The Belgian number two seed is now through to the round of 16 and will be hoping to repeat her third round efforts in the next week.

Former Australian Open semi-finalist Schnyder and Aiko Nakamura both struggled to hold serve in their match with 10 breaks in just 17 games.

Nakamura won fewer than a quarter of the points on her second serve, helping the Swiss seventh seed progress to the fourth round 6-2 6-3.

Sixteen-year-old Nicole Vaidisova and Italian 20th seed Flavia Pennetta also found serving difficult, but the Czech 16th seed showed why she is touted as a player of the future with a 6-4 6-2 win.