Justine Henin will put her 32-match winning streak on the line against Maria Sharapova in the Australian Open quarterfinals, their first meeting since the season-ending championship final in Madrid.
The top-ranked Henin had another straight-set win over an unseeded player, routing Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei 6-2, 6-2 in the fourth round Sunday when two-set victories dominated after an extra-long Day 6.
The fifth-seeded Sharapova pounded fellow Russian Elena Dementieva 6-2, 6-0, breaking the 11th-ranked player in six of her seven service games, including one at love to finish off the match in 62 minutes.
“I have always had really tough games against her,” Sharapova said, “and I wanted to make sure I kept my focus all the way through.”
That was a good warmup for the next stage.
“Justine’s the one to beat,” Sharapova said. “She’s on a pretty good winning streak, but every match is new.
“The one in Madrid was tough but physically she got me in the end — she was tougher than I was in the end. But I had many chances and I was very close to winning.”
In an early match Monday, No. 4 Ana Ivanovic joined Sharapova and Henin in the quarterfinals with a 6-1, 7-6 (2) win over Caroline Wozniacki.
Ivanovic will play the winner of Monday’s later fourth-round match between Wimbledon champion Venus Williams and Marta Domachowska.
Wozniacki didn’t have a single winner in the first set and won just 10 of 25 points on her serve as Ivanovic, dictating play, broke her three times.
Sharapova was seeded No. 1 last year when Henin skipped the season-opening major because she was going through a divorce. The Russian star reached the final before losing to Serena Williams in a lopsided final.
Williams also advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-3, 6-4 over No. 11 Nicole Vaidisova in a rematch of last year’s semifinal. She will play third-ranked Jelena Jankovic, a 7-6 (3), 6-1 winner over Australia’s Casey Dellacqua.
Henin lost the No. 1 ranking after the Australian Open last year, handing the top spot to Sharapova for seven weeks.
But Henin returned to the tour soon after, embarking on a 63-4 season that culminated with a 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 win over Sharapova in 3 hours, 24 minutes at the WTA Tour Championships in Madrid.
That was the longest best-of-three match in the history of the season-ending tournament and 12th-longest tour match in the Open era.
“I always know to beat her I have to be at my best,” said Henin, whose only loss since May was a Wimbledon semifinal upset to Marion Bartoli. “She’s a real fighter and she never gives up.”
Henin won the Sydney International title in the leadup to the Australian Open, beating second-ranked Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final, and has added wins over Aiko Nakamura, Olga Poutchkova and No. 25 Francesca Schiavone at Melbourne Park.
Sharapova has not dropped a set in wins over Jelena Tosic Kostanic, former No. 1-ranked Lindsay Davenport, Elena Vesnina and Dementieva.
No. 2 Rafael Nadal also advanced to the quarterfinals in straight sets, including an abbreviated 6-3, 3-0 win in the fourth round when Paul-Henri Mathieu withdrew because of an injured left leg.
Nadal’s match was over at 10:30 p.m. at Rod Laver Arena on Sunday after he won 11 of 12 points to open the second set.
Mathieu had taken a medical timeout to receive treatment, and told the chair umpire after 50 minutes that he could not continue.
“I was playing well today, maybe I was playing my best tennis in Australia this year,” said Nadal, the three-time French Open champion. “I’m happy to be in the quarterfinals — would have preferred not like this.”
The last match the previous night did not start until 11:47 p.m. and Lleyton Hewitt finally beat 2006 runner-up Marcos Baghdatis in five sets at 4:33 a.m on Sunday
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