World No. 1 Justine Henin strolled into the last 16, beating Italian 25th seed Francesca Schiavone 7-5, 6-4 at the Australian Open here on Friday.
The Belgian top seed exchanged service twice with Schiavone in the 57-minute first set before she broke twice to take the seventh victory over her rival in as many meetings.
"Francesca is always a tough player and I knew that. Physically she's very strong and she's running a lot. So I'm happy because I had pretty good reactions when I had to," she said.
Henin will next meet Hsieh Su-Wei from Chinese Taipei who will make her first fourth round appearance at the Australian Open, overcoming French Aravane Rezai 6-2, 6-7 (3-7), 6-4.
Defending champion Serena Williams did not give her opponent Victoria Azarenka of Belarus much of a chance when the American seventh seed eased through 6-3, 6-4.
Third seed Jelena Jankovic of Serbia hit less winners, 20 compared to her rival's 25, but also made 13 unforced errors fewer when she defeated Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano 6-2, 4-6, 6-1.
Czech Nicole Vaidisova, seeded 12th, made an easier work past Japanese Ai Sugiyama 6-3, 6-4.
In the men's field, No. 4 seed Nikolay Davydenko has moved through to the fourth round with a 6-3, 6-2, 6-3 win over Frenchman Marc Gicquel.
Davydenko was never truly challenged by his opponent with 52 unforced errors.
Gicquel broke in the first game of the match after the Russian sent down four errors, but lost his serve in the second and sixth games to lose the set 6-3.
The Russian world No. 4 broke twice for 5-1 in the second before serving out the set 6-2.
The 30-year-old Frenchman brought the score in the third set to3-3, but conceded the next three games to lose the set and match his second-round loss at the Australian Open last year.
Source: Xinhua
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