Sixth seed Tim Henman's Australian Open dreams were left in tatters today as he fell 6-2 7-6 6-4 in the fourth round to doubles specialist Jonas Bjorkman.
Having won the much-hyped Battle of Britain against Greg Rusedski on Friday, Henman - who had been the tournament's highest surviving seed - was taught a tactical lesson by the Swede ranked just 64th in the world for singles, but number one in the world for doubles.
"I felt whatever Tim did I was there," Bjorkman said afterwards. "It is such a great feeling now."
In the women's draw, second seed Venus Williams showed no mercy, brutally dismissing 13th-seeded Bulgarian Magdalena Maleeva 6-0 6-3, while third seed Martina Hingis blew away Amanda Coetzer 6-1 6-0.
Williams meets eighth seed Monica Seles in the quarter-finals after Seles's Spanish opponent Anabel Medina Garrigues joined a long injury list at the year's first grand slam.
Medina Garrigues had been enjoying her best performance at a major but the unseeded 19-year-old's progress was cut short in the sixth game of their fourth round match after she twisted her knee and had to concede.
Hingis needed just 44 minutes to seal one of her easiest ever victories on the Melbourne Park centre court.
"I played really well," Hingis said. "I've played her in the past and lost to her so I knew I would have to play well to beat her."
She meets Adriana Serra Zanetti in the quarter-finals after the unseeded Italian beat Slovakia's Martina Sucha.