Bartoli beats injury-hit Kuznetsova in Miami

Marion Bartoli wasted little time in brushing aside top seed Svetlana Kuznetsova in the fourth round of the Sony Ericsson Open in Miami.

The Russian was dispatched by her French opponent 6-3 6-0 in 56 minutes in a one-sided encounter punctuated by Kuznetsova requiring three bouts of physio treatment on a shoulder injury.

Bartoli, seeded 13th, broke twice in the first set and converted all three of her break chances in the second.

Kuznetsova, clearly struggling, had no answer to Bartoli in the second set in which she made an impressive 79% of first serves but won just 33% of points on it. Bartoli, in contrast, won 90% of her first-serve points and 75% of her second.

Kuznetsova revealed she had suffered the injury in her first match of the tournament and it had grown steadily worse.

She said: "It wasn't so bad as today; today was really bad.

"At 5-3 I started to serve and I felt like a pull. But I still kept serving. I almost had stars in my eyes it was so painful.

"I called physio and tried to continue to play. I think I should have pulled out earlier. I mean, it's impossible. You know, I cannot return. Then I cannot serve. That was my choice to play."

Bartoli's reward is a quarter-final clash against 12th seed Yanina Wickmayer who comfortably dismissed Timea Bacsinszky 6-0 6-1, and the 25-year-old was delighted.

"It feels great," she said. "I had a couple of bad years here. It was really tough for me, because I really love this tournament since I played Orange Bowl here when I was 16 years old.

"Coming here and playing so badly the last few years has been tough mentally. This year I just arrived a bit earlier from Indian Wells and practised a lot more to get used to the conditions... I think the work paid off."

Venus Williams survived an early scare to see off Daniela Hantuchova 1-6 7-5 6-4 after the Slovakian stormed out of the blocks, racing into a 4-0 lead in the first set.

Williams dropped eight of the first nine games before rallying at 2-0 down in the second set and the number three seed booked herself a match against sixth seed Agnieszka Radwanska who cruised to a 6-1 6-1 triumph over Yaroslava Shvedova.

Caroline Wozniacki had no such problems and the second seed needed little more than an hour to dismiss Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2 6-2.

She will face Justine Henin in the quarter-finals after the former World number one saw off 11th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1 6-4.

Elsewhere, Kim Clijsters dumped defending champion Victoria Azarenka out of the tournament with the Belgian triumphing 6-4 6-0 over the fourth seed to set herself up with another tricky opponent in Samantha Stosur.

The ninth-seeded Australian beat Jelena Jankovic 6-1 7-6 (11/9) although she was made to work in the second set as the number seven seed threatened a comeback from 3-1 down.