Associated Press

Amelia Island, April 9:

World No 1 Justine Henin-Hardenne reached the quarter-finals of the Bausch & Lomb Championships by rallying to deny Conchita Martinez her 700th career victory. Henin won 2-6, 7-5, 6-3 despite losing her serve three times in each of the first two sets. Martinez, champion in 1995, appeared set to become only the seventh woman in the Open era to win 700 matches when the Spaniard took her first ever set off Henin in six meetings. But Henin broke Martinez to love in the 11th game to win the second set, and held on after breaking in the fourth game of the third.

Second-seeded Serena Williams came back from 3-0 down in the second set to beat Karolina Sprem of Croatia 6-1, 7-5, and set up a quarter-final against No 7 Nadia Petrova of Russia. Petrova handled Petra Mandula of Hungary 6-1, 6-4. No 8 Vera Zvonareva of Russia hammered No 12 Patty Schnyder of Switzerland 6-2, 6-3. Schnyder, twice a quarter-finalist, made 21 unforced errors and won only a third of her first serves. Zvonareva plays Henin next. Former champion Amelie Mauresmo of France dispatched Czech Barbora Strycova 6-3, 6-4 to reach her third quarter-finals in four tournaments this year. Mauresmo, who won this tournament in 2001, won the last three games of the first set against Strycova, the 2002 world junior girls champion, and broke once more in the eighth game of the second. Mauresmo, seeded and ranked No 3, is appearing in her first tournament in nine weeks following a back injury, and will meet 10th-seeded Silvia Farina Elia of Italy. Farina Elia won 6-2, 6-2 against Jelena Kostanic, the Croatian who knocked out defending champion Elena Dementieva in the second round. Ninth-seeded Paola Suarez of Argentina broke No 6 Ai Sugiyama of Japan to force a tiebreaker, and went on to win 7-5, 7-6.