Brutal Nadal, mean Murray march on in Melbourne

Reuters) - Rafa Nadal shook off the sweats to savage Croatian Marin Cilic and reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open on a Melbourne Monday evening as cool as the top seed was hot.

Nadal, who was perspiring profusely earlier in the week as he battled flu, declared his 6-2 6-4 6-3 win his best match “by far” at the tournament where he hopes to become just the third man to hold all four grand slam titles at once.

Andy Murray also doled out an impressive thrashing but his expected quarter-final showdown with Robin Soderling failed to materialise after Melbourne Park debutant Alexandr Dolgopolov shocked the Swede.

Women’s title favourite Kim Clijsters prevailed 7-6 6-2 in a tight night encounter against Russian lefthander Ekaterina Makarova to reach the last eight here for the first time since her return from retirement.

Nadal had lost his only previous encounter with Cilic but the 15th seed never looked like repeating the upset as the rampant world number one brutally took him apart.

Cilic, a semi-finalist here last year, was well beaten long before he netted a return after two-and-a-half hours and a delighted Nadal moved on with a snarl to a quarter-final against fellow Spaniard David Ferrer.

“Today I felt very good, no?” he said. “I didn’t sweat like the other days. So that’s fantastic news for me. The better news is I played much better than the rest of the days.

“I was able to play with high intensity, very good rhythm, playing more inside the court. So play more aggressive, changing rhythms with the slice and with the topspin, backhand.”

Losing finalist here last year, British fifth seed Murray had conceded just 16 games in three matches to reach the fourth round and was equally parsimonious in dispatching Austrian Juergen Melzer 6-3 6-1 6-1.

Registering only 10 unforced errors over the match, and just two in the first set, Murray concluded his victory with a 13th ace to send out a warning that he is a serious contender for his first grand slam title.

“I’m not expecting to go through the tournament winning matches like that,” said Murray. “I’m ready for that mentally when it does get tough ... It’s been a very good start, but it’s going to get much tougher.”

Next up for Murray is the unorthodox Dolgopolov, who found fourth seed Soderling far more accommodating in the opening match on centre court, recovering from a poor start to record a well-deserved 1-6 6-3 6-1 4-6 6-2 upset.

Soderling, who had never previously been beyond the second round at Melbourne Park, admitted he was not at his best but also paid tribute to the talents of his 22-year-old pony-tailed vanquisher

Clijsters into quarterfinals at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) January 24 —No. 3-ranked Kim Clijsters beat Ekaterina Makarova 7-6 (3), 6-2 on Monday to advance to the quarterfinals of the Australian Open, where she is increasing as favorite for the title.

Clijsters has won all three of her Grand Slam titles at the U.S. Open— including the last two—and is aiming for her first major outside of America. She lost the final here in 2004.

The 27-year-old Belgian struggled to convert her breakpoint chances into service breaks, converting just 3 of 13 in the match, but still finished off in 1 hour, 28 minutes.

She will play No. 12 Agneiszka Radwanska in the quarterfinals.