Davenport Stock Rises as Russians Collapse, Venus Loses at Australian Open

"I felt today was a big improvement from my last few matches and felt I did some things a lot better in terms of groundstrokes and being more aggressive, being more aggressive with my play and going forward," said Davenport, who has lost one set en route to the quarters. "I mean, (I'm) in the quarterfinals, which is a great round to be in. If my game's improving, that's always a good sign."

In the quarters Davenport will face No. 10 seed Alicia Molik of Australia, who upset 2003 runner-up and No. 8 seed Venus Williams 7-5, 7-6(3).

Venus converted only one of seven break point opportunities against Molik, who out-aced the American seven to two.

Monday was also a tough day for the Russians, with No. 3 seed Anastasia Myskina succumbing rather easily to No. 19 Nathalie Dechy 6-4, 6-2, and No. 6 Elena Dementieva putting in an ugly display against No. 12 Patty Schnyder in a 6-7(6), 7-6(4), 6-2 loss.

Myskina went mentally off the boil against the Frenchwoman with numerous unforced errors, especially off the forehand side, and was not hesitant in pinpointing who gets credit for the result.

"No problem, just a bad day, bad game," Myskina said. "She didn't do a lot of unforced errors. It was mostly I missed the whole match. So I can't say really that she won the match -- I can say that I lost the match...I never won a match on Rod Laver court. So maybe that's not my court. But just it's one of (my) excuses."

Dechy disagreed with the Russian's assessment.

"I'm in the next round and she's not," Dechy said. "I think I won the match."

Dementieva, in addition to blowing a huge lead over Schnyder, kicked in 61 unforced errors and 10 double faults against the lefty, converting on only eight of 20 break chances.

"Such a bad luck today, you know. I was (up a set and) 4-Love, 30-Love. You know, I didn't take my chance," Dementieva said. "I didn't take my advantage. She just started to play well. I just -- I think I lost my rhythm. I thought it's over already."

Schnyder for her part was unclear as to how she made a comeback from a set and 0-4 down.

"Oh, actually I don't know because I was really frustrated with the first set because I think I was more dominating the rallies," the Swiss said of the battle between two of the more mentally unstable players on tour. "I couldn't really get it and win the important points because I was a little nervous, a little tight. So I was frustrated up to 0-4. Then I just, yeah, kept going, tried to, yeah, play one point at a time. Yeah, suddenly it was close again and, you know, getting nervous again."

Matches scheduled for Tuesday in Melbourne include (5) Kuznetsova vs. (4) Maria "Grunt-o-rama" Sharapova in an all-Russian, (7) Serena vs. (2) Mauresmo, in doubles the Spanish/Russian combo of Anabel "Funky Cold" Medina Garrigues/Dinara "Little Sis" Safina vs. Americans (15) Davenport/Morariu, unseeded Hantuchova/M.Navratilova vs. (6) Kuznetsova/Molik, Russians (7) Myskina/Vera "The Crying Game" Zvonareva vs. (16) Daniilidou/Pratt, and Czechs Gabriela "No Relation" Navratilova/Pastikova vs. Russell/Santangelo.