Kim Clijsters was courage personified as the defending champion shook off a painful ankle injury and saved four match points to overhaul China's Li Na 4-6 7-6 6-4 and reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on Sunday.
World number six Li Na made into the fourth round at the Australian Open on Friday.
Serena Williams beat Barbora Zahlavova Strycova of Czech Republic 6-0, 6-4 to finish off her second-round match at the Australian Open here on Thursday and her 500th career win, while Chinese Zheng Jie advanced to the next round of both women's singles and double event in four hours.
Russia's golden girl Maria Sharapova spent only 64 minutes disposing of an American qualifier to reach the third round of the Australian before setting her mind on a life-long goal to win a medal for Russia at the Olympics.
Rafael Nadal sailed on in the Australian Open, winning in straight sets over Tommy Haas and happy with the improvement in his injured right knee as he reached the third round on Wednesday.
World No 1 Caroline Wozniacki fought off a second-set fightback to reach the Australian Open third round on Wednesday as Li Na and Kim Clijsters moved closer to a 2011 final rematch.
Peng Shuai, the No 16 seed, saw her Australian Open campaign end prematurely with a second round loss to Czech veteran Iveta Benesova, 6-2, 6-4, under the blazing sun in Melbourne.
Philipp Kohlschreiber (GER) bt Pere Riba (ESP) 6-0, 4-0 - retired; Tomas Berdych (CZE x7) bt Olivier Rochus (BEL) 6-1, 6-0, 7-6 (4); Lu Yen-hsun (TPE) bt Florent Serra (FRA) 7-5, 6-2, 6-2; Kevin Anderson (RSA x30) bt Sergiy Stakhovsky (UKR) 3-6, 6-1, 7-6 (3), 6-3; Alejandro Falla (COL) bt Mardy Fish (USA x8) 7-6 (4), 6-3, 7-6 (6); Roger Federer (SUI x3) bt Andreas Beck (GER) - walkover; Feliciano Lopez (ESP x18) bt Flavio Cipolla (ITA) 7-5, 7-6 (4), 6-2; Juan Martin del Potro (ARG x11) bt Blaz Kavcic (SLO) 6-4, 7-5, 6-3; Rafael Nadal (ESP x2) bt Tommy Haas (GER) 6-4, 6-3, 6-4; Lukas Lacko (SVK) bt Donald Young (USA) 6-3, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3; John Isner (USA x16) bt David Nalbandian (ARG) 4-6, 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (5), 10-8; Alexandr Dolgopolov (UKR x13) bt Tobias Kamke (GER) 4-6, 6-1, 6-1, 3-6, 8-6; Ivo Karlovic (CRO) bt Carlos Berlocq (ARG) 7-6 (4), 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; Bernard Tomic (AUS) bt Sam Querrey (USA) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (3), 6-3; Nicolas Almagro (ESP x10) bt Grigor Dimitrov (BUL) 4-6, 6-3, 6-7 (4),
As temperatures hitting a sweltering 40 Celsius, red-faced players got sweated through at Melbourne Park and Rod Laver Arena during opening days of the 2012 Australian Open tennis tournament, swathing themselves in ice packs wet towels.
China's Li Na charged into the third round of the Australian Open with a 6-2 6-2 win over local hope Olivia Rogowska in the sunshine at Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday.
US Open champion Stosur crumbled once again under the huge weight of local expectation to crash out of the Australian Open 7-6 6-3 at the hands of Romania's Cirstea in the first round.
Novak Djokovic kept cool in stifling Melbourne heat to kick off his Australian Open title defense with a straight-sets thrashing of Italian Paolo Lorenzi on Tuesday and not even a grilling about a possible players' revolt could make him break sweat.
Copyright 1995 - . All rights reserved. The content (including but not limited to text, photo, multimedia information, etc) published in this site belongs to China Daily Information Co (CDIC). Without written authorization from CDIC, such content shall not be republished or used in any form. Note: Browsers with 1024*768 or higher resolution are suggested for this site.
License for publishing multimedia online 0108263 Registration Number: 130349 
