No problems for Henin in Brisbane

Justine Henin continued her successful WTA Tour comeback with a straight-sets win against Sesil Karatantcheva at the Brisbane International today.

The former world number one is playing in her first tournament since May 2008 after announcing last year she was coming out of retirement.

Having beaten second seed Nadia Petrova in her opening match, the Belgian was a little erratic but still eased past 20-year-old Karatantcheva 6-4 6-3 and will face Melinda Czink in the quarter-finals.

Lucie Safarova set up a last-eight meeting with top seed Kim Clijsters with a 6-3 6-1 victory over sixth seed Aleksandra Wozniak.

Fourth seed Daniela Hantuchova matched that score in dumping out Agnes Szavay while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova recovered from a set down to beat Roberta Vinci 1-6 6-4 6-1 and will next face third seed Ana Ivanovic.

In the men's event, top seed Andy Roddick was given a stern test by home hope Carsten Ball before eventually prevailing 7-6 (7/0) 6-3.

Ball created a set point on his opponent's serve at 4-5 but could not take it and a one-sided tie-break proved the end of his hopes.

Roddick is likely to face another stern test in the quarter-finals when he comes up against former top-10 star Richard Gasquet, who ended the hopes of Australian qualifier Matthew Ebden today.

Gasquet, playing in his first tournament since having his drugs ban formally overturned last month, took an hour and 20 minutes to see off his opponent 6-3 6-4.

Second seed and defending champion Radek Stepanek survived a major scare before booking his spot in the quarter-finals.

The Czech battled from a set down against Ukrainian qualifier Oleksandr Dolgopolov Jr before winning a marathon three-setter 5-7 7-6 (7/4) 6-2.

Stepanek will now play Wayne Odesnik after the American defeated Alejandro Falla 6-7 (8/10) 6-2 6-1.

Third seed Gael Monfils and fourth seed Tomas Berdych made the last eight in contrasting fashions.

Monfils battled for more than two hours to see off fellow Frenchman Florent Serra 6-7 (5/7) 7-6 (7/5) 6-1 while Czech Berdych won through in less than half the time against Marcos Baghdatis.

The Cypriot is a fans' favourite Down Under after reaching the Australian Open final in 2006 but he will want to forget this match after going down 6-0 6-1.

Eighth seed Thomaz Bellucci set up a quarter-final meeting with Berdych thanks to a 6-4 4-6 6-4 win over Israel's Harel Levy.

American James Blake backed up his win over fifth seed Sam Querrey with another hard-fought three-set victory over Frenchman Marc Gicquel.

Blake saved three match points on his way to a 6-3 3-6 7-6 (10/8) victory in just over two hours.