Henin storms into last eight

Second seed Justine Henin-Hardenne hammered out a warning to her rivals for the US Open title when she crushed Israeli Shahar Peer 6-1 6-0 to reach the quarter-finals yesterday.

The 2003 champion ripped past 21st seed Peer in just 50 minutes to set up a clash with either seventh seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland or American Lindsay Davenport, the 1998 champion.

"It was a very good match for me," Henin-Hardenne said. "I did a lot of serve and volleying today and that helped me to stay aggressive."

Henin-Hardenne had needed three sets to get past Ai Sugiyama of Japan in the previous round but she won 12 of the first 14 points on her way to taking the first set in 23 minutes.

Peer, who was appearing in the fourth round for the first time, had no answer to Henin-Hardenne's power and the Belgian cruised to victory.

Nalbandian eliminated

On Sunday night, some seeded players were knocked out, including Argentine number four David Nalbandian on the men's side and Russian number five Nadia Petrova on the women's.

Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal continued their march towards the final by securing straight-sets victories in the third round. Number five James Blake, number nine Andy Roddick, 15th seed Lleyton Hewitt and number 17 Andy Murray all advanced.

Nalbandian lost his second-round match to former US Open champion Marat Safin 6-3 7-5 2-6 3-6 7-6 in a three-hour, 52-minute marathon, while Petrova was sent packing 7-5 6-7 6-3 by France's Tatiana Golovin.

Yesterday's results: (women) Dementieva bt Rezai 7-5 6-4; Jankovic bt Kuznetsova 6-7 6-3 6-2; (men) Youzhny bt Robredo 6-2 6-0 6-1.