Clijsters cruises into last eight

Defending champion Kim Clijsters today extended her winning streak at the US Open to 18 matches with a straight-sets victory over Ana Ivanovic in the fourth round.

Clijsters won the title at Flushing Meadows in 2005 and came out of retirement last year to lift the trophy again in only her 14th match and third tournament since returning to action.

And the second seed again demonstrated her liking for New York by brushing aside former world number one Ivanovic 6-2 6-1 in just 59 minutes to advance to a quarter-final clash with either fifth seed Samantha Stosur or 12th seed Elena Dementieva.

“At the beginning you have to settle down with the wind and adjust, especially with the serve, and then I felt I started moving forward better and dictating the points better and was defending pretty good as well,” said Clijsters, who has dropped just 14 games in four matches.

“I’ve always played really good matches in America. I enjoy playing on hard courts and you automatically do well in places where you feel good and have done well before, so the US Open is a special tournament for me.”