Tennis:Martina Hingis survived a scare before breezing through to the quarter-finals in Melbourne yesterday. The three-times champion struggled early in her last-16 match with China's Li Nan but eventually ran out a 4-6 6-3 6-0 winner.

Li broke twice and sent down 15 winners to four to take the first set but her error count soon began to tell and it did not take Hingis long to capitalise with two breaks in the second set.

Her opponent simply self-destructed in the third, committing a further 23 unforced errors as Hingis, who only hit one winner in the entire set, stood back and allowed her rival to throw the match away.

Although relieved to be gifted victory, the sixth seed, who reached six consecutive finals between 1997 and 2002, lost her first service game as the rising Chinese star surged ahead in the first meeting between the pair.

Hingis admitted she will need to start much better in her next match.

"I knew what to expect, but I was really nervous in the beginning," she said.

"She played well. Everyone else knows by now she serves almost 100 per cent first serves. I was thinking 'okay, if she can continue to play like that, it's too good'. I just tried to hang in there. That was the most important thing. That was the key, to win the last point."

Hingis will now meet number five seed Kim Clijsters, who easily accounted for Slovakian number 15 seed Daniel Hantuchova, 6-1 7-5.

Squaring off under the sun on Rod Laver Arena, the Belgian capitalised on three of her eight break points to take the first set in 27 minutes.

Bouncing back in the second set, Hantuchova did well to break Clijsters' serve but it was not enough as Clijsters wrapped up the set and the match soon after.

Playing her final Australian Open before retirement, Clijsters admitted she was looking forward to playing good friend Hingis in the quarter-finals.

"Last year, I was really excited to play against her as well, because it was a while before I got to play her," Clijsters said. "I think she's doing well. It's good to see that she's doing well.

"I look forward to playing against her. We always have a lot of fun points when you play against Martina. She always comes up with some unbelievable shots that you don't expect."

In an all-Russian affair in the evening session, top-seed Maria Sharapova maintained her title hopes with a gutsy 7-5 6-4 victory over Vera Zvonareva.

The match got off to an even start but it Sharapova broke late to claim the first set in an hour. She did the opposite in the second, breaking Zvonareva's first service game.

Leading 4-2, the US Open champion broke again to serve for the match but Zvonareva refused to throw in the towel, surviving that game and match point in the next before Sharapova eventually stumbled over the line.

Sharapova was grateful to come through in relatively quick time after a draining week of action at Melbourne Park and against an opponent who had beaten her twice in their five career meetings.

"It was very good to win in two sets today because I've had some tough matches against her. I came up with three really good shots to win it at the end there," she said in a courtside interview.

Sharapova, who will regain the world number one ranking at the end of the tournament, served solidly in the first and did not concede a break point throughout.

The next round sees her play another fellow Russian, Anna Chakvetadze, who completely outclassed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

Falling in the first set after having her serve broken three times, Schnyder then surrendered the match as Chakvetadze cruised to a 6-4 6-1 win.