MELBOURNE, Jan. 19 (UPI) -- Top seeds Serena Williams and Lleyton Hewitt look to advance to the quarterfinals Monday at the Australian Open.
Hewitt plays No. 18 Younes El Aynaoui of Morocco, and Williams faces women's No. 18 Eleni Daniilidou of Greece.
Also, sixth seed Roger Federer of Switzerland meets No. 10 David Nalbandian of Argentina; ninth seed Andy Roddick of the United States squares off against No. 25 Mikhail Youzhny of Russia in a battle of 20-year-olds; and No. 23 James Blake of the United States encounters No. 31 Rainer Schuettler of Germany.
Schuettler gained a fourth-round berth Friday when second seed and last year's finalist Marat Safin of Russia withdrew with a wrist injury.
On the women's side, fourth seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium takes on No. 19 Amanda Coetzer of South Africa; eighth-seeded Anastasia Myskina of Russia plays No. 10 Chanda Rubin of the United States; and No. 20 Elena Bovina of Russia battles 25th-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States.
Hewitt hopes to reach the quarterfinals here for the first time. He routed Radek Stepanek in 90 minutes to match his best career showing at this event.
The Australian Open is Hewitt's least successful Grand Slam. He won his first major crown at the 2001 U.S. Open and captured his second at Wimbledon last year.
The 21-year-old from Adelaide is bidding to become the first home player to win the Australian Open title since Mark Edmondson did it in 1976.
Hewitt has won three of four career meetings with El Aynaoui, who is trying to reach the quarterfinals here for the second time. He advanced to the round of eight in 2000.
El Aynaoui, 31, is coming off his most successful season. He won three titles in 2002, appeared in two other finals and reached his second career Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open, where he lost to Hewitt in four sets.
Since getting stretched to three sets by Emilie Loit in the first round, Williams yielded just six games in her next two matches. A win would allow the 21-year-old American to match her best showing here, achieved in 2001.
Williams missed last year's event due to a twisted right ankle but bounced back to win the next three Grand Slams - beating her older sister Venus in the finals of each one - and capture five other tournaments.
Daniilidou opened 2003 by winning at Auckland for her second career title. She will try to advance to her first quarterfinal at a major.
Clijsters has yet to win a major, but has won 22 of her last 23 WTA Tour matches. The 19-year-old Belgian has captured her last three events dating to last season and is just the fourth player in the last 20 years to win three consecutive titles without dropping a set.
Clijsters was a semifinalist here last year and appeared in her first major final at Roland Garros in 2001.
The Australian Open is Coetzer's best Grand Slam. She has reached the semifinals in 1996 and 1997 and the quarterfinals two years ago. But the 31-year-old South African has yet to win a set in three encounters with Clijsters.
Nalbandian, last year's Wimbledon runner-up, is 2-0 lifetime against Federer, but the two 21-year-olds have been battling each other since their junior careers. The Argentine defeated Federer to win the 1998 U.S. Open boys' title, but Federer recorded a win in the semifinals of the Orange Bowl to claim the year-end No. 1 junior ranking.
Roddick hopes to advance to his third career Grand Slam quarterfinal and his first outside of the U.S. Open, where he appeared in the round of eight the last two years. The 20-year-old American was the 2000 Australian Open junior champion, defeating Mario Ancic in straight sets in the final. He finished 2000 as the No. 1 junior player in the world.
Youzhny also has tasted junior success here. He was runner-up in the 1999 boys' final. The 20-year-old Youzhny gained hero status in his country in December when he rallied from two sets down to win the deciding fifth match in five sets to lift Russia to its first Davis Cup crown.
Youzhny, aiming for his first career major quarterfinal, has won both his matchups against Roddick in straight sets.
