Sharapova safely through

Top seed Maria Sharapova completed the quarter-final line-up at the Australian Open on Monday by seeing off fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva in straight sets.

The 19-year-old edged a tight first set 7-5 and survived break points against her in the 10th game of the second set to come through 6-4.

Sharapova’s next opponent is another Russian, Anna Chakvetadze, who beat Swiss eighth seed Patty Schnyder. Chakvetadze, the 12th seed, secured her place in the last eight with a straight sets 6-4 6-1 victory.

Fourth seed Kim Clijsters kept her Australian Open dream alive with a 6-1 7-5 victory over Daniela Hantuchova to set up a quarter-final meeting with three-time champion Martina Hingis.

Clijsters, making her final appearance in Melbourne after announcing she will retire at the end of the season, dropped only nine games on her way to the fourth round and looked on course for another quickfire victory after storming through the first set in just 27 minutes.

However, Hantuchova responded in the second set and looked to have earned a tie-break as Clijsters wasted several match points at 5-4 but the world number five came through backed by a 76% first serve success rate.

Hingis recovered from a below-par first set to derail 19th seed Li Na 4-6 6-3 6-0 with an impressive recovery.

The sixth seed, who reached six consecutive Australian Open finals between 1997 and 2002, had conceded only nine games in reaching the fourth round but lost her first service game as the rising Chinese star surged ahead in the first meeting between the pair.

The five-time grand slam champion hit back with a break of her own but again failed to hold serve as Li opened up a 5-4 advantage to seal the first set.

Hingis surged into a 2-0 lead in the second but the world number 16 quickly responded to level at 2-2 before the Swiss ace fought off five break points to hold serve.

The world number seven went to pick up a crucial break to level the match as a large amount of unforced errors slipped into Li’s game – and Hingis took control of the contest.

She started the decisive set in ideal fashion with a break and quickly wrapped up the victory.