Russian Nadia Petrova has grabbed her second big win in as many outings at Melbourne Park, following up her thrashing of Kim Clijsters with a three-set defeat of No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova to reach the Australian Open quarter-finals for a second time.
The 27-year-old No.19 seed looked in trouble when she was broken in the opening game of the decisive set after her countrywoman had rallied from a set down but Petrova then reeled off six games in succession to race away to a 6-3 3-6 6-1 victory.
Petrova will be looking to head to the semi-finals at a Grand Slam for the third time, following two last-four appearances at Roland Garros, when she meets either seven-time major winner Justine Henin, who has beaten Petrova in 12 of their 14 meetings, or her fellow unseeded Belgian Yanina Wickmayer.
A single break of serve in the sixth game proved enough for Petrova to grab a one-set lead against Kuznetsova but when the reigning French Open champion broke in the eighth game of the second set the clash was soon back on level terms.
And Kuznetsova seemed to have all the momentum as she broke again in the first game of the final set but from there it was all Petrova as she broke Kuznetsova three times in succession to cruise into last eight.
Also through to the last eight, for the first time in her seventh visit to Melbourne Park, is Zheng Jie of China, the 2008 Wimbledon semi-finalist having battled past No.31 seed Alona Bondarenko in straight sets.
The unseeded 26-year-old, who reached the round of 16 here 12 months ago to end a run of five first-round defeats at the year's opening Grand Slam, gained revenge for defeat against Bondarenko last week in Hobart.
On that occasion Bondarenko advanced to the last four with a 7-5 7-5 victory and the Ukrainian had plenty of chances to repeat the effort in their rematch at Hisense Arena but Zheng responded to potential problems several times throughout the match to eventually prevail 7-6 (7-5) 6-4.
Zheng, who has been knocked out of the Australian Open five times from six attempts by Russian opponents, now waits for either Russian No.2 seed Dinara Safina or her countrywoman Maria Kirilenko.
Safina has won four of the five previous meetings between her and Zheng including at the 2005 Australian Open but Zheng won the most recent in Los Angeles last year while against Kirilenko Zheng leads their head-to-head count 4-1.
In the early stages a repeat of that Hobart result looked on the cards when Bondarenko twice led with breaks, in the fifth and ninth games but she failed to maintain the advantage, failing to make the most of set points in the 10th game as Zheng rallied to force a tie-breaker.
Again Bondarenko had the chance to forge to a one-set lead when she led 5-4 with two serves to come but Zheng won three points in a row to quickly turn the tables and when she broke in the first game of the second set a quick kill looked likely.