American Day at Melbourne

He was swiftly joined by top seed Andy Roddick who made beating Dutchman Sjeng Schalken look as easy as 1-2-3 — triumphing 6-1, 6-2, 6-3.

Women’s fifth seed Davenport was just as emphatic, beating 11th seed Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 6-3, a thrashing that left the Russian in tears.

Davenport will play Justine Henin-Hardenne next after the top seed remained on track for a first Australian Open crown with an economical 6-1, 7-6 defeat of Mara Santangelo.

France’s Amelie Mauresmo also advanced, made to fight all the way before beating brave local hope Alicia Molik 7-5, 7-5.

Agassi recovered from an early loss of serve to win the first set against Paradorn and never looked back.

Agassi will meet Sebastien Grosjean for a place in the semis after the Frenchman beat American Robby Ginepri 6-4, 3-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Roddick followed Agassi on to Rod Laver Arena centre court and took just 79 minutes to wipe Schalken.

The Dutchman simply had no answer to Roddick’s power off the ground or pace of serve.

“I feel solid out there — it’s all right,” the 21-year-old American said. “I thought I returned really well, from the back of the court that’s as well as I’ve played this tournament.”

Roddick will next face former world number one Marat Safin after the Russian overpowered American James Blake 7-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-3.

The match featured a spectacular shot from Safin to break Blake a final time when the Russian appeared to throw the racket at the ball — an illegal shot.

Blake refused to blame that one point for the defeat.

Safin said: “It was just pure luck, 100 percent. I think I just threw it…I don’T know how it happened.”

Whether the racket was in his hand when the ball was struck or not was too close to call for the umpire to make and the break stood.

Henin-Hardenne’s far from emphatic win over little-known qualifier Santangelo lines her up for a tough last-eight showdown with Davenport, the only former champion still in the draw.

The Belgian, holder of the French and US Open titles, is a strong favourite to win her first Australian Open but did not have things all her own way against an opponent ranked 129th in the world.

Henin-Hardenne will have to be in much better form against 2000 champion Davenport.

On Sunday the American’s heavy hitting overpowered 19-year-old Zvonareva from the start. Such was Davenport’s dominance that the match lasted just 47 minutes.

Mauresmo, a finalist at Melbourne Park in 1999, was made to work for every point in her fourth round match before finally putting down Molik’s challenge.

Mauresmo will play 32nd seed Fabiola Zuluaga of Colombia for a place in the semis. (Reuters)