Serena Williams and defending champion Victoria Azarenka have eased into the Australian Open quarter-finals with convincing wins on Monday.
Williams was in devastating form as she stayed on track for a semi-final clash against Azarenka with a 6-2 6-0 thrashing of Russian 14th seed Maria Kirilenko in the night session on Rod Laver Arena.
A fine display of serving – including 87 percent of first serves in and six aces – and 22 winners saw Williams to the victory in just 57 minutes.
Kirilenko had break points in the opening game before Williams settled, moving into a 4-1 lead.
On the back of five aces and 14 winners in the first set, Williams had no trouble seeing it out before jumping out to an early lead in the second.
A Kirilenko unforced error off the forehand handed the American 15-time grand slam singles winner the break and a 2-0 advantage.
After Williams held, she broke again thanks to a netted Kirilenko drop shot and a clean backhand winner.
Kirilenko had no answers against Williams, who controlled most of the points with her power from the back of court.
Williams was in no mood to slow down and got the job done in less than an hour, setting up a meeting with compatriot Sloane Stephens in the final eight.
Stephens, the 29th seed, reached her first grand slam quarter-final after edging Serbia's Bojana Jovanovski 6-1 3-6 7-5.
Despite hitting 43 unforced errors, Stephens progressed after one hour and 53 minutes.
Azarenka thrashed Elena Vesnina to set up a last-eight clash against Svetlana Kuznetsova after the Russian upset Danish 10th seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Having had to come from a break down in the third set to beat an injured Jamie Hampton in the third round, Azarenka was back to her best as she handed out a tennis lesson to Vesnina in the 6-1 6-1 victory in 57 minutes.
Azarenka got off to a flyer by breaking twice early on to open up a 4-0 lead and the set was hers after just 29 minutes when she also won the seventh game by forcing a forehand error on Vesnina's serve.
Vesnina briefly threatened a comeback when she managed her only break in the first game of the second set but Azarenka hit back immediately and from there it was all one-way traffic as she went on to wrap up the easy win.
Two-time major winner Kuznetsova, whose ranking plummeted well outside the top 50 in the second half of last year as she was sidelined after Wimbledon by a bone injury in her knee, had to go the distance in order to overcome former world number one Wozniacki 6-2 2-6 7-5 in 148 minutes.
Having made the last eight at Melbourne Park in 2005 and '09, '04 US Open champion and '09 French Open winner Kuznetsova will have to spend plenty of time on recovery after twice receiving treatment - after the second set and midway through the third - on a toe or foot ailment.
Wozniacki will be left to rue her inability to convert a host of chances throughout the match, having managed to break only four times from 15 opportunities, including just one of eight in the third set, as she fell to Kuznetsova for the second time in a fortnight after also losing to her at the Sydney International.
Kuznetsova broke in the third game of the final set only to give the advantage straight back, but after saving a couple more break points in the sixth game and another in the eighth, she had no trouble serving out the match after breaking Wozniacki.