Amelie Mauresmo today became the first woman to book her place in the fourth round of the Australian Open.
The second seed defeated Serbia's Ana Ivanovic 6-2 7-5 in Melbourne and will face Russia's Evgenia Linetskaya in the last 16.
Mauresmo surprisingly lost the opening set of her previous match against Dinara Safina - sister of men's fourth seed Marat Safin - but was always in control against the world number 82.
I started much better this time and was focused on the start of the match, said Mauresmo, who has failed to reach a grand slam final since her defeat to Martina Hingis here in 1999.
I didn't want anything like the second round to happen today. I played a solid match, pretty consistent and went a little more to the net which I should do. I'm pretty satisfied.
Linetskaya defeated Amy Frazier 6-3 6-4 while another Russian, Vera Douchevina, also advanced to the fourth round with a 7-5 6-4 win over Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany.
Fifth seed Svetlana Kuznetsova then made it three Russian women into the fourth round - with the possibility of six more to follow - with a hard-fought win over Mariana Diaz-Oliva from Argentina.
Kuznetsova, battling to put the controversy over her reported positive drug test behind her, eased through the first set 6-3 but needed a tie-break in the second to advance to the last 16 where she will face compatriot Douchevina.
Serena Williams also eased into the fourth round with a routine victory over wild card Sania Mirza of India.
The seventh seed smashed 12 aces, the last on match point, to win 6-1 6-4 in under an hour on the Vodafone Arena.
The former world number one will now face Russian Nadia Petrova for a place in the quarter-finals, the 11th seed beating Magdalena Maleeva of Bulgaria 6-4 6-4.
