By Chris Davies
January 25 2004

Lindsay Davenport set up a mouth-watering quarter-final clash with world number one Justine Henin-Hardenne, winning in different ways to advance Davenport's match against 11th seed Vera Zvonareva was picked to be a hard fought battle and could have caused a surprise result. But the Russian who ousted Venus Williams in last years French Open could not get her game on track at all allowing the American to hammer winners from all around the court.

The fifth seed eased to a 6-1, 6-3 win in just 47 minutes, puttting Zvonareva under pressure throughout, scoring 19 winners and breaking four times.

Henin-Hardenne defeated Davenport in the fourth round in Melbourne last year when she rallied from 1-4 down in the deciding set and overcame cramps to win 7-5, 5-7, 9-7 in over three hours.

She came up against Maria Santangelo and sealed the first set in 28 minutes and looked like an easy stroll in the park for the top seed. But Santangelo found started to relax taking a lead in the second set and holding a set point at 5-4 and could have been a surprise shock. Henin-Hardenne hit back to break to level at 5-5 then went into a tie-break. That was also close with the Belgian just squeezing through 7-5.

Amelie Mauresmo overcame a back injury and a spirited Alicia Molik. Mauresmo who struggled most of last year with a back injury said afterwards that she had tweaked it a little and will know need some treatment. The Australian who has had a tremendous week battled all the way but at crucial times could not hold on with Mauresmo wining 7-5, 7-5.

Fabiola Zuluaga will be her next opponent reaching the quarter-finals for the first time. The 32nd seed cruised past Hungarian sensation Aniko Kapros 6-4, 6-2 and could be a huge challenge for the 4th seed.