Zvonareva, Clijsters win in Melbourne

MELBOURNE, Jan. 24 (UPI) -- Second-seeded Vera Zvonareva and No. 3 Kim Clijsters advanced to the Australian Open quarterfinals with straight-set wins Monday.

Zvonareva swept past Iveta Benesova 6-4, 6-1 and Clijsters capped fourth-round play with a 7-6 (7-3), 6-2 victory over Ekaterina Makarova.

Zvonareva was good on 70 percent of her first serves and won 56 percent of the points on Benezova's serve. She had five service breaks, including three in a seesaw first set. Zvonareva won more than two-thirds of the points in putting the match away in the second set.

Clijsters won the first two games but suffered an early service break that led to the tiebreaker. She dropped the point on serve to open the tiebreaker before winning the next four points. In the second set, Clijsters won 63 percent of the points.

Makarova fought off 10 of Clijsters' 13 break-point chances but lost her serve in the third and seventh games of the second set.

In other matches, 12th-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska saved two match points before defeating Peng Shuai 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 and No. 25-seeded Petra Kvitova advanced over No. 22 Flavia Pennetta 3-6, 6-3, 6-3.

Zvonareva will face Kvitova in the quarterfinals. They've split their two previous meetings. Clijsters will go against Radwanska. Clijsters won a 2006 match against Radwanska in their only career pairing.

On other side of the bracket, the quarterfinal draw has top-seeded Caroline Wozniacki going against No. 6 Francesca Schiavone and ninth-seeded Li Na playing No. 30-seeded Andrea Petkovic.