Fourth seed Sharapova had been dramatically under-par for most of her Court
Two encounter but after taking a lengthy toilet break at the end of the second
set she returned with renewed vigour to ease through to the last eight.
By contrast, seventh seed Dementieva made sure of a her place in the last
eight with a quickfire 6-2, 6-0 win over Perry, ending America's interest in
both singles competitions.
Myskina reached the last eight for the second year in succession beating
Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, the conqueror of defending women's champion Venus
Williams 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) and will face Mauresmo.
Henin-Hardenne, seeking an elusive title here to complete her Grand Slam
collection, steamrolled the feeble challenge of Slovakian 15th seed Daniela
Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1 in just 65 minutes.
She next faces Severine Bremond, who continued her extraoardinary run by
putting out Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama, the conqueror of Martina Hingis, 7-6
(13/11), 6-3.
Clijsters eased through with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Polish wildcard Agnieszka
Radwanska.
On a day when temperatures shot up to 32 degrees, top seeds Roger Federer and
Amelie Mauresmo were ice-cool.
Federer brushed aside the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to
move closer to a fourth successive Wimbledon title while Mauresmo, the
Australian Open champion, was equally untroubled beating Ana Ivanovic
6-3, 6-4.
Double
French Open champion Rafael Nadal reached the Wimbledon last
eight for the first time with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win against Georgia's Irakli
Labadze.
However, the young Spaniard spent most his post-match news conference
defending his reputation after his name was linked to the ongoing cycling doping
controversy in his own country.
