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The start of the second week of the Australian Open brought its fair share of surprises with 5-time champion Serena Williams being stunned by 23-year old Russian left-hander Ekaterina Makarova. While Williams self combusted in the Melbourne heat during the early stages of the contest, Makarova played some terrific tennis late in the second set to stave off a typical Williams fightback. Earlier in the day, the leading left-hander on the ladies tour, Petra Kvitova brought an end to the challenge of popular Serb Ana Ivanovic in straight sets.

An hour and 22 minutes was all it took Ekaterina Makarova to book her place in the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam for the very first time in her career as she took out American legend Serena Williams in straight sets 6-2, 6-3 on a sweltering hot day at Melbourne Park. Thirty seven unforced errors from Williams out of a total of 66 points lost in the match told its own story as a sluggish Serena rather looked like she didn't really want to be on court today.

However, tennis is all about taking your chances, and full credit to young Makarova for taking hers with both hands. A 35 minute opening set was competitive during the early stages before Makarova pulled away towards the end courtesy of a double break.

Serena upped her game in the second set, breaking Makarova to love to take a 2-0 lead, but the Russian broke right back to love to keep herself in the set. Makarova took control of the second set by breaking Serena's serve a second time, and consolidated the break to take a 4-2 lead. Serena stemmed the run of games against her with a solid hold before putting the Makarova serve under severe examination in the following game. Ekaterina though hung in firm and finally closed out the service game on her third game point. The drama carried on into the 9th game with Serena powering home her 9th ace of the match to deny Makarova on her first match point. Two more came and went with Williams' first serve coming to her rescue, but as the game wore on so did the weariness on the face of Serena, and the match ended perhaps poignantly with yet another unforced error, characterisizing Williams' general lack of focus today.

Makarova will next face the winner of the match between 2008 champion Maria Sharapova and Sabine Lisicki later this evening.

Much earlier in the day, Petra Kvitova continued her march towards her second career Grand Slam title and possibly even the world no.1 ranking with a largely one sided 6-2, 7-6 (2) win against former French Open champion Ana Ivanovic.

Breaks of serve in the 3rd and 7th games allowed Kvitova to breeze through the opening set in just over half an hour. A break of serve in the 5th game of the second set appeared to seal the contest as Kvitova proceeded to serve out the match at 5-4. However, Ivanovic found some late stomach for a fight, winning 8 points in a row to pull ahead 6-5. Kvitova, who had dropped a set last week to Carla Suarez Navarro, was in no mood to lose a second, and quickly tightened up her game, romping through the tiebreak 7-2 to advance to her second Australian Open quarter-final.

Kvitova will next face unseeded Italian Sara Errani for a place in the semi-finals. Errani played near flawless tennis, dishing out a 6-2, 6-1 hammering to 2010 Australian Open semi-finalist Zheng Jie of China.

Singles - Fourth Round
(2) Petra Kvitova (CZE) d. (21) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 62 76(2)
Ekaterina Makarova (RUS) d. (12) Serena Williams (USA) 62 63
Sara Errani (ITA) d. Zheng Jie (CHN) 62 61

File Photograph Copyright: Porsche Tennis Grand Prix