Venus advances to quarters at Aussie

At least one American woman has reached the Aussie quarterfinals every year since 1977.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Venus Williams advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals for the seventh time with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 win over Francesca Schiavone early today.

The sixth-seeded Williams, who lost the 2003 final to younger sister Serena in her best run so far at Melbourne Park, dropped a set to Schiavone for the first time in seven years but recovered to win a sixth consecutive match against the Italian player.

The Williams sisters are on track to meet in the semifinals, with top-ranked and defending champion Serena playing Australia’s Sam Stosur in a fourth-round match later today on Rod Laver Arena.

Venus struggled to hold serve in the first set but was in command by the end, when she won the last six games after Schiavone broke her to open the third.

“Francesca was playing so well, she was so tenacious, she has so much speed,” Williams said. “I had a little bit of a slow start.”

Williams’ win extends a streak in which at least one American woman has reached the Australian Open quarterfinals every year since 1977. She next plays the winner of today’s later match between No. 16 Li Na of China and U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark.

Maria Kirilenko, who upset Maria Sharapova in the first round, won her fourth-round match Sunday when Dinara Safina pulled out because of a back injury and limped off the court.

Safina was facing set point, trailing 4-5 and serving at 30-40 when she retired.

“It’s really, really terrible,” Safina said at a post-match news conference, saying she seemed to be suffering a flare-up of a back injury that ended last year’s season in October and halted her hold on the No. 1 ranking she owned for much of 2009.

“The physio asked me to lie on the table, I said I cannot lie. I cannot make any movement. Whatever I try to move it hurts terribly,” said Safina, who was a finalist at the French Open and last year’s Australian Open.

The 22-year-old Kirilenko, who is ranked No. 58, will be making her first appearance at a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

“I’m feeling bad for Dinara,” said Kirilenko, adding she would have preferred not to have won by default but she was nonetheless “happy about it.”

No. 3 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to Nadia Petrova, who went into the match after a 6-0, 6-1 third-round victory over U.S. Open champion Kim Clijsters.

Petrova has equaled her best run at the Australian Open by reaching the last eight. She’s never gone further than the semifinals at a major.

As a young player, Petrova looked set to become a star with her big serve and solid groundstrokes.

In 2003, she reached the semifinals at Roland Garros, knocking off Monica Seles and Jennifer Capriati on the way.

But she was upstaged in 2004 by other Russians. Sharapova won Wimbledon that year, Anastasia Myskina won the French Open, and Kuznetsova took home the trophy at the U.S. Open.

Petrova attributes some of her resurgence to the fighting spirit of Russian players.

“There’s a lot of competition between us,” said the No. 19-seeded Petrova. “There’s a lot of us, obviously ... Everyone of us wants to be the No. 1 in our country.”

On paper, Sunday’s match looked close. Petrova had 25 winners compared with Kuznetsova’s 22, and 47 unforced errors with Kuznetsova’s 55.

But Petrova held her nerve, while Kuznetsova let frustration get the best of her.

“I was doing too many unforced errors. I didn’t serve good. I was just struggling to find my game,” Kuznetsova said. “I lost confidence, I was very frustrated.”

While the seeded players dropped, former No. 1 Justine Henin continued her run in her first Grand Slam tournament in two years with a 7-6 (3), 1-6, 6-3 win over fellow Belgian Yanina Wickmayer, keeping her on track for a quarterfinal meeting with Petrova.

“Definitely she’s getting confidence and she’s playing at her best level that I’ve seen her at lately,” Kuznetsova added.