Davenport, Henin-Hardenne and Petrova all advance

Lindsay Davenport, Justine Henin-Hardenne and Nadia Petrova all showed tremendous skill and poise to advance to the quarter-finals of the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Russia’s Petrova breezed through to the last eight with a 6-3 6-1 victory over fellow countrywoman Elena Vesnina.

The sixth seed broke her opponent’s opening service game but did not capitalise as Vesnina broke straight back.

However, Petrova soon took the upper hand when she broke Vesnina’s serve in the sixth game before going on to claim the set.

The second set quickly became a one-sided affair as the in-form Russian put her foot down to take it in only 29 minutes.

Meanwhile, top seed Davenport also cruised into the quarter-finals with an emphatic 6-2 6-4 victory over Svetlana Kuznetsova in sweltering conditions.

The American took just 18 minutes to run through the first set and then another 40 minutes on her way to the convincing victory in 40 degrees Celsius temperatures.

Kuznetsova, the tournament’s 14th seed and former US Open champion, could do little in the way of attacking as her opponent skilfully sent the ball to all corners of the court.

The only concern for Davenport heading into the quarter-finals will be an ankle injury that required treatment mid-way through the second set.

Henin-Hardenne completed a good day for the seeds as she made light work of doubles specialist Virginia Ruano Pascual.

The Belgian had little trouble as she won 6-0 6-3 over the struggling Spaniard to book a last-eight clash against Davenport.