Justine Henin reaches quarter-finals as Svetlana Kuznetsova bows out

Justine Henin continued her impressive return from retirement with a three-set win over Yanina Wickmayer to reach the quarter-finals of the Australian Open. The 27-year-old Henin is less than a month into her return after ending her 20-month absence from the game but is in sight of an eighth grand slam title after defeating her fellow Belgian 7-6 (7-3), 1-6, 6-3. The wildcard entry again had to call on her battling qualities as Wickmayer, the world No16, raced through the second set to take the match into a decider. Henin steadied, however, and produced some memorable winners to see off Wickmayer's challenge. "It wasn't easy. She played a great match," Henin said. "She was very aggressive and took her chances. Physically, it was not easy for me. I missed two years so that's why I love being on the court now. It's a great feeling to be back. Everything is going so well." In the final fourth-round match of the day, the second seed Dinara Safina retired due to injury to hand her fellow Russian Maria Kirilenko a passage into the quarter-finals. Last year's finalist was trailing Kirilenko 5-4 and 30-40 on serve when she called an end to the match with what appeared to be a back complaint. Safina walked gingerly to the umpire's chair immediately after playing a forehand from the back of the court and ended the contest without calling for a medical timeout. The walkover win for Kirilenko, who turns 23 tomorrow, means that she progresses to the last eight of a grand slam for the first time in her career. The world No58 has beaten two Russian seeds so far at Melbourne Park, after upsetting the 2008 winner Maria Sharapova in the opening round. Safina had started the match well and took an early break to surge into a 3-1 lead. The world No2, however, started to show signs of a problem as the set wore on before Kirilenko levelled at 4-4. Kirilenko then held serve to go ahead before Safina decided she could not go on. Kirilenko will play China's Zheng Jie in the quarter-finals. Another Russian, Svetlana Kuznetsova, refused to blame scheduling for her exit in the fourth round at the hands of her compatriot Nadia Petrova . Kuznetsova, the third seed, did not finish her third round match until around 2am local time yesterday, only to find herself back on court less than 36 hours later, losing 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. The French Open champion has questioned the logic of holding late-night matches in Melbourne, and as she faced Petrova in the baking afternoon sun, she must have been cursing that decision even more. Kuznetsova slept little on Saturday and also had to play a doubles match later in the day, but after her defeat she admitted that tricky scheduling is merely part and parcel of tournaments. "I have to go to bed at four in the morning. Next day, of course, I wake up early because I'm used to wake up at nine," said Kuznetsova. "I sleep only a few hours. I play a three set match of doubles. Then today they put me second. "It changes things. But to play good and try to win grand slams, you have to be able to perform and to pass through difficult moments like this. Definitely it was not the best schedule for me, but it's not an excuse at all. I had all the chances to win today, I just didn't use it." For Petrova, the match was merely a continuation of her giant-killing run at this year's tournament. Fresh from destroying Kim Clijsters 6-0, 6-1 in the third round, she romped to victory – albeit in three sets this time – to seal a quarter-final against Henin. Meanwhile China's Zheng eased into the quarter-finals after a 7-6, 6-4 victory against Alona Bondarenko . The win added to China's impressive showing this year, and also justified Zheng's decision to break away from her country's regimented sports system a year ago. "Last year was the first year I've gone it alone. There were many things I didn't understand or know about and things weren't easy," said Zheng. "I think in my second year, I'm adapting to a lot." Zheng, along with three of China's top women players, Li Na, Peng Shuai and Yan Zi, was granted the option of leaving the system at the end of 2008 in a watershed decision by the national tennis administration. Leaving the regime, which most of China's top athletes are still tied to, meant keeping a lot more of her earnings. "I think Australia is lucky for me because I won the first grand slam doubles title here," she said, referring to her 2006 title when she was partnered with partnered with Yan. "But I think we can go further because you can see Li Na in the fourth round. I hope both of us Chinese players can be in the semi-finals."