MELBOURNE - Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova set up an explosive Australian Open quarter-final with crushing wins but men's fourth seed Nikolay Davydenko's title hopes fizzled out at a drizzly Melbourne Park on Sunday.

Justine Henin Maria SharapovaThe Russian was given a 7-6 6-3 6-1 thrashing by 14th-seeded compatriot Mikhail Youzhny.

David Nalbandian, seeded 10th, was also on the wrong end of a pasting, losing 6-1 6-2 6-3 to Spain's Juan Carlos Ferrero in a third-round match held over from Saturday.

Third seed Jelena Jankovic advanced safely, however, ending the dream run of home hope Casey Dellacqua with a 7-6 6-1 tennis lesson in the first match of the night session.

The final match was cut short when Paul-Henri Mathieu pulled out of his clash with second seed Rafael Nadal trailing 6-4 3-0. The Frenchman had a leg injury.

Ferrero and Nalbandian took up residence on centre court at 11am, just 6 ½ hours after the end of Lleyton Hewitt's epic five-set victory over Marcos Baghdatis. That ended at 4:33am after four hours 45 minutes of see-saw action.

Ferrero's victory could hardly have been more different as he raced past the Argentine in just 104 minutes.

"When you play matches against the top players like today, you want to do your best -- I think I did it very well," he said.

NEAR NAMESAKE

Ferrero next plays compatriot and near namesake David Ferrer for a place in the quarter-finals. The fifth seed swatted aside American Vince Spadea 6-3 6-3 6-2.

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