Top seed Justine Henin of Belgium reached the last 16 of the Australian Open on Friday with a hard-fought 7-5 6-4 win over seed No.25 Francesca Schiavone of Italy.

Schiavone was concentrated and performed very well, but you need to be perfect if you want to defeat Henin, even if she is not playing her best tennis, which was the case on Friday.

There were five service breaks in the first set, and three of them went to Henin so she won the close opening set. In seemed that Henin would easily win the second set as she was 4-1 up, but Schiavone battled back and had two break points to level at 5-5. Still, Schiavone could not convert and and Henin closed out the match with three straight points.

In the fourth round, Justine Henin will face Taiwan's Hsieh Su-wei before a possible meeting with Maria Sharapova. (via BBC, photo Getty Images)

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Cheered on by her Australian-based relatives and the local expatriate Serb community, fourth seed Ana Ivanovic crushed Italian world No.40 Tathiana Garbin 6-0, 6-3 to move into the third round of the Australian Open.

"I just played an awesome match, I really hope I can keep at this level and play as long as possible here," said the 20-year-old Ivanovic.

The world No.3, who advanced in just 66 minutes, will next face seed No.28 Katarina Srebotnik of Slovenia. The Serb is definitely the favorite in this match as she has the perfect 3-0 record against the Slovenian and has shown she is in spectacular form at her favorite Grand Slam.

BTW: I haven't told you before, but do stop by Ana Ivanovic's Australian Open blog if you want to see this Grand Slam from her point of view or ask her a question. (photo via Ana Ivanovic's site)

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Venus Williams advanced to the Australian Open third round with an unimpressive 7-5 6-4 victory over France’s Camille Pin.

The former world number one had to come from behind in both sets (from 4-5 in the first and 2-4 in the second) to beat the battling Frenchwoman. Even though Pin defended well, the encounter was close because Williams made a lot of unforced errors and her serve was not remarkable either. In the first set the eight-seeded Williams double-faulted four times, and made 21 unforced errors to Pin's 11. The second set was quite the same story for Williams, two double faults and 23 unforced errors.

Venus Williams next faces Indian Sania Mirza who showed the controversy is not affecting her play as she managed to focus on tennis and advance at the Aussie Open. (photo via Getty Images)

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At the third day of the Australian Open, No.12 seed Nicole Vaidisova of Czech Republic defeated Australian Alicia Molik in straight sets 6-2 6-3 , and later apologized for beating the local favorite.

Vaidisova's domination in this second round match raised questions about Molik’s ability to fight back to a career-high world ranking of eight. After the one-sided encounter, the 18-year-old Vaidisova apologized to the crowd for 'ruining' their day by beating their home player.

With the victory the world No.12 booked a meeting with Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama.

BTW: Finally, Nicole Vaidisova said something about her supposed engagement to fellow Czech Radek Stepanek. They are dating, but there is "no wedding, no engagement, no nothing." Why did it take her so long to announce the truth?

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Lindsay Davenport was not a big challenge to fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova who defeated her 6-1 6-3 in little over an hour.

Sharapova took the first set in just 26 minutes. The second set was much more competitive, but still Davenport couldn't find an answer to Sharapova's confident play and devastating form.

Everybody was disappointed that these two former world number ones had to meet as early as in the second round of the 2008 Australian Open. However, we must admit that the comeback mom Lindsay Davenport didn’t live up to the expectations, as we were expecting a much tougher battle and a continuation of her more than impressive comeback.

Davenport herself is not satisfied with her performance, but is still optimistic (and she should be!). "I know I can play better than I did here this week," said the former Australian Open champion. "I've got to figure out a way to play better again at the bigger tournaments."

Maria Sharapova will face fellow Russian Elena Vesnina in round three. (photo via Getty Images)

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