Tuesday, July 4 2006 15:14 Hrs (IST) - World Time -

London: China and Russia rubbed salt into the United States' Wimbledon wounds on Monday by underlining their status as the emerging superpowers in women's tennis.

Li Na became the first Chinese player to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam while Russia saw three women make up the last eight with wins for Maria Sharapova, Elena Dementieva and Anastasia Myskina.

America's last representative in either the women's or men's singles was sent packing when unheralded Shenay Perry lost in straight sets to Dementieva.

On a day when temperatures shot up to 32 degrees, top seeds Roger Federer and Amelie Mauresmo were ice-cool.

Federer brushed aside the Czech Republic's Tomas Berdych 6-3, 6-3, 6-4 to move closer to a fourth successive Wimbledon title while Mauresmo, the Australian Open champion, was equally untroubled beating Ana Ivanovic 6-3, 6-4.

Double French Open champion Rafael Nadal reached the Wimbledon last eight for the first time with a 6-3, 7-6 (7/4), 6-3 win against Georgia's Irakli Labadze.

However, the young Spaniard spent most his post-match news conference defending his reputation after his name was linked to the ongoing cycling doping controversy in his own country.

"I've never taken anything in my life, and I never will," said Nadal.

"I'm well enough educated in the sporting world and out of the sporting world to not cheat," he said.

"It's lies and people who write lies are bad people," he said.

Nadal added that he was considering legal action.

Federer will face Mario Ancic in the last eight, a match which has special significance for the world number one as the Croatian seventh seed was the last man to beat him on grass here in 2002.



Since then, Federer has put together a record winning run of 45 matches on his favourite surface, but he is not taking his opponent lightly.

"He's got grass court expertise, it will be a tough match," said the Swiss. Nadal will take on Finland's Jarrko Nieminen who beat Russia's Dmitry Tursunov in a five-set thriller which saw both players hit with a point penalty.

Men's 2002 champion Lleyton Hewitt reached the last eight with a 6-4, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 win against Spain's David Ferrer and next meets Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus, the Australian Open runner-up, who knocked out Britain's Andy Murray.

Li, the Chinese number one and 27th seed, came from behind to beat the Czech Republic's Nicole Vaidisova 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 and will now face second seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium for a place in the last four.

The 24-year-old from Wuhan showed that her third round defeat of former US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova was no fluke and illustrated why she has leapt 40 places in the rankings to a career high 30.

"I'm proud for myself and for my country," said Li.

"Now I hope to go further and show that women's tennis in China is getting better and better," he said.

Li's achievements won praise from French Open champion Justine Henin-Hardenne.

"Beating Kuznetsova and Vaidisova shows what a good player she is," said the Belgian.

"There are a lot of players coming from China and I'm sure we will see more of them, especially on grass because they are great fighters," he said.

Maria Sharapova struggled with the searing heat as well as the stubborn resistance of Italy's Flavia Pennetta to reach the quarter-finals.



The 2004 champion toiled for almost two and a half hours to overcome the 16th seed 7-6 (7/5), 3-6, 6-3 and now faces Dementieva.

Fourth seed Sharapova had been dramatically under-par for most of her Court Two encounter but after taking a lengthy toilet break at the end of the second set she returned with renewed vigour to ease through to the last eight.

By contrast, seventh seed Dementieva made sure of a her place in the last eight with a quickfire 6-2, 6-0 win over Perry, ending America's interest in both singles competitions. Myskina reached the last eight for the second year in succession beating Serbia's Jelena Jankovic, the conqueror of defending women's champion Venus Williams 6-4, 7-6 (7/5) and will face Mauresmo.

Henin-Hardenne, seeking an elusive title here to complete her Grand Slam collection, steamrolled the feeble challenge of Slovakian 15th seed Daniela Hantuchova 6-3, 6-1 in just 65 minutes.

She next faces Severine Bremond, who continued her extraoardinary run by putting out Japanese veteran Ai Sugiyama, the conqueror of Martina Hingis, 7-6 (13/11), 6-3. Clijsters eased through with a 6-2, 6-2 win over Polish wildcard Agnieszka Radwanska.