In a suprising result from a match up between top seed Ana Ivanovic and former world No. 1 Amelie Mauresmo, the frenchwoman easily defeated the Serbian 6-3, 6-2 in just over an hour. Mauresmo had a 5-2 head -to-head lead against Ivanovic, but it took her just over an hour to record an easy victory.
"It feels great," said the world No.24 Mauresmo who reeled off 10 of the last 12 games with ease. "I'm very proud of the way I played today from the first one to the last."
As for Ivanovic, though the loss may have been predictable on paper, the rankings seemed to write off the past records easily this time.
"I was pretty happy with my first two matches," the Serbian said. "After last night's match I didn't have much time to recover… and I didn't have the energy to dig deep again. But in Melbourne I'm going to be practicing and playing lots of sparring. I just have to get more consistent and work more on my serve."
Earlier in the day, Belarussian Victoria Azarenka fended off the challenge of Czech Lucie Safarova 7-6(5), 6-4 to setup a semifinal berth against Serra Errani who defeated Belarussian Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-3. In another night match, Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli beat Italian veteran Tathiana Garbin 6-3, 6-3.
In the men's draw, Spanish Davis Cup hero, Fernando Verdasco came from behind to overcome last year's champion Florent Serra 4-6, 6-0, 6-3 in a match that lasted one hour and 48 minutes.
After the match Verdasco told reporters - "I think the Davis Cup will be in my mind all my life, For example when I was playing today and when it was the tough moments I was thinking 'I can come back – I came back in the Davis Cup, why can't I come back today?'"

The Spaniard next faces Paul-Henri Mathieu, who easily reached the semifinals beating rising Japanese star Kei Nishikori 6-3, 6-4 in 89 minutes.

The other two quarterfinals on friday feature a match up between Frenchmen Jo-Wilfred Tsonga and Richard Gasquet and Radek Stepanek up against Swede Robin Soderling.