Melbourne, Australia (Sports Network) - Top seed Justine Henin advanced to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open on Sunday by winning her 32nd straight match, a straight-set victory over Taiwan's Su-Wei Hsieh. Additionally, third-seeded Jelena Jankovic, fifth seed Maria Sharapova and defending champion Serena Williams, seeded seventh, also advanced to the quarterfinals.
Henin, the 2004 Australian Open champion and reigning French and U.S. Open titlist, had a relatively easy time, winning 6-2, 6-2. Hsieh, who had never advanced beyond the first round at Melbourne before this year's tournament, fought off match point twice in the second set.
But Henin was dominant -- winning 10 straight games after being down 2-1 in the first set -- and eventually closed out the win. She will face Sharapova, who breezed through her match with 11th seed Elena Dementieva, in the quarterfinals. The match, which Sharapova won 6-2, 6-0, took all of 62 minutes.
Henin is 6-2 all-time against Sharapova and she beat her Russian opponent in three sets in the 2007 Tour Championships final.
"I always know to beat her I have to be at my best. She's a real fighter," Henin said of Sharapova. "She never gives up. Very talented. She's a champion. So I know that against her I will have to be a hundred percent all the time."
Sharapova was the 2007 Aussie Open runner-up to Williams, who had slightly more trouble in defeating 12th-seeded Nicole Vaidisova, 6-3, 6-4. With the first set already in Williams' hands, each player had two games in the second set.
Williams broke Vaidisova in the fifth game to gain momentum, and took the sixth game for a 4-2 lead. Vaidisova, however, won the next two games, including a break of Williams' serve in the eighth game.
But as soon as Vaidisova stormed back, she unraveled. Williams won the ninth game as the Czech player served and double-faulted on break point. She continued to hit errant shots as Williams took the match. Vaidisova, a semifinalist in last year's Australian Open, committed 25 unforced errors in all.
Williams will face the third-seeded Jankovic in the quarterfinals. Jankovic ended the run of Australian Casey Dellacqua with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 triumph. Dellacqua had knocked off seeded players Patty Schnyder and Amelie Mauresmo in her two previous matches.
The four players remaining in the top half of the draw have combined for 17 Grand Slam titles. Only Jankovic, of the four, has yet to capture a major crown.
Williams has eight career Grand Slam titles, including Aussie Open crowns in 2003, 2005 and last year, while Sharapova has won a pair of majors. Henin is a seven-time Grand Slam champ and hasn't lost at all since the semifinals at Wimbledon last year.
"Now it's like another tournament is going to start. It's gonna be another level," Henin said. "Every match is so different. There were things pretty positive in my game. There are things I'll have to improve and really raise my level in the next matches."
Sunday's play also featured four third-round matches following Saturday's rain. Ninth seed Daniela Hantuchova beat Virginia Ruano Pascual, 6-2, 6-3, and Nadia Petrova, the 14th seed, won the second-set tiebreak, 10-8, to take a 6-1, 7-6 win over Ekaterina Makarova.
Marta Domachowska upset 24th seed Na Li, 2-6, 6-2, 6-4, and Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark needed three sets to oust Germany's Sabine Lisicki, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Fourth-round play will conclude Monday in the bottom half of the draw.
Venus Williams, seeded eighth, will meet Domachowska; fourth-seeded Ana Ivanovic will battle Wozniacki; Hantuchova will square off against Maria Kirilenko; and Petrova will face Agnieszka Radawanska, who eliminated second- seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova in the third round.
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